An impressive new-ball burst from Ben Coad on a grey Headingley afternoon did little to lift the hosts’ gloomy prospects in their opening match of the year, following as it did a grey, underwhelming performance from the batting unit.
Glamorgan will undoubtedly be the happier side going into the weekend, as Billy Root and Chris Cooke remain unbeaten overnight with a lead of 205 and six wickets in hand.
Yorkshire wrapped up Glamorgan’s first innings shortly after Michael Hogan reached his fourth first-class fifty. Having steered his side to safety alongside Timm van der Gugten (who finished on a career-best 85*), Hogan enjoyed early success with the ball as Tom Kohler-Cadmore flashed carelessly at a ball outside off stump and Tom Loten missed a straight delivery to perish without scoring.
At the other end, Adam Lyth nailed a couple of drives to settle any nervous Yorkshire supporters, and in the company of the England Test captain he proceeded to settle into his work with assurance. He showed every sign of pushing on for a big score, but shortly after reaching his half-century he narrowly avoided being run out at the non-striker’s end and then Dan Douthwaite produced a lovely inswinger to trap the veteran lbw.
Root himself survived an lbw shout on four off the bowling of his younger brother, but was otherwise calm, cautious, and circumspect until he inexplicably spooned a full toss from Callum Taylor to mid-off, becoming only Taylor’s third victim in red-ball cricket.
With Root’s departure, Yorkshire were forced to confront their perilous position in the match: they had allowed Glamorgan to recover from 132 for seven and slumped to 79 for four themselves.
Their chances of staging a quick recovery and reasserting their dominance over a side they outclass on paper were further dashed by the wicket of Jonny Tattersall for 15. He was joined in the pavilion by Harry Brook after a respectable 40 and Matthew Fisher for just six, the latter nicking off to give left-arm seamer Jamie McIlroy his first professional wicket.
On his Championship debut for Yorkshire, Dom Bess played a solid and responsible innings to shepherd his new club past the follow-on target despite the loss of captain Steven Patterson and Coad, who was caught superbly by Taylor in the deep. Taylor then wrapped up the Yorkshire innings by getting Duanne Olivier caught behind, denying Yorkshire a batting point and sealing a 137-run lead.
Glamorgan were slow to capitalise on their advantage in the fading light of the final session, though, as Coad followed a fine outswinger to Nick Selman in his opening over with the further wickets of David Lloyd (16) and Kiran Carson for a duck.
Billy Root and Cooke came together at 29 for four and halted the collapse to finish the day with a clear advantage. The prospect of dealing defeat to Yorkshire in this match would be all the sweeter for the younger Root, who finished the day by studiously keeping his older brother’s off breaks away from his stumps.
Ben Coad for England!!!