Jonny Bairstow’s England career might be over, but the Yorkshire captain still possesses a gift for crisp timing, effortless power, and an impeccable sense of occasion.
The sun was shining on south London, there was a bumper crowd of more than 5,000 (many of those queuing round the corner at 11am were supporting Yorkshire), and the Sky cameras were in town for the first Championship meeting between England’s two most decorated counties since 2022.
Bairstow will have been smarting that his team could not quite earn victory last week, having dominated at Essex, especially when he lost an important toss on a pitch so green that Yorkshire left out both the spinners who played at Chelmsford, Dom Bess and Dan Moriarty. Rory Burns gratefully stuck Yorkshire in, becoming the 16th successive captain to bowl first upon winning the toss in a first-class match at the Oval.
Visiting the Oval is the toughest task in county cricket and, even without their England contingent, Surrey were able to field an XI featuring seven Test players, six of them former England team-mates of Bairstow, including Jason Roy, his great ODI opening partner.
After this game, pending final paperwork, Bairstow will be flying to India for a brief stint with Mumbai Indians in the latter stages of the Indian Premier League. He was initially overlooked at the IPL auction, before the England and Wales Cricket Board – still his paymasters on a central contract that ends in October – blocked him going to the Pakistan Super League, leading to his elevation to the captaincy at Yorkshire, a post his father, David, once held.
Mumbai wanted him to go to India before this match, but Bairstow chose to stay. Yorkshire have considered it a bonus to have him around so much in the early part of the season, so gave their blessing for him to miss their Championship match against leaders Nottinghamshire and possibly a couple of Blast fixtures, too.
All this meant there was an air of inevitability about Bairstow performing here. In fact, the only surprise was that he fell 11 runs short of his first century as Yorkshire captain. Without him, this would have been a much tougher day for his team, given the misfortune of losing the toss. He provided the backbone of their 255; given 13 overs before stumps, Surrey’s openers, Burns and Dom Sibley, had chipped off 46.
Bairstow’s Yorkshire have been a team in the captain’s image: entertaining and unpredictable, capable of winning games by huge margins (504 runs against Worcestershire, their biggest ever) and losing games they should win (at home to Warwickshire, when Joe Root and Harry Brook were available). He has contributed positively. This innings leaves him with 448 runs at a tick shy of 50 this season; none of those above him do not have a hundred, but they have also not scored as quickly as his strike rate of 68.
Yorkshire made a good start, with Division One’s leading run-scorer Adam Lyth sharing an opening stand of 52 with Finlay Bean. But Bean and James Wharton fell in quick succession, then Jonny Tattersall was brilliantly caught down the leg side by a leaping Ben Foakes.
Foakes’s catch brought his old England rival, Bairstow, to the crease. He was soon at his bristling best, stroking Tom Lawes for boundaries through cover and midwicket, then pulling Matthew Fisher, who moved south from Headingley this winter, for four. Later in the over he was flicked fine for four more. The New Zealander Nathan Smith was brought on, and bounced out Lyth with a brute. But he could not trouble Bairstow, who drove him through cover and down the ground to reach a half-century that featured 10 boundaries.
Looking to kick on, Bairstow swatted Surrey’s spinner Dan Lawrence to the man in the deep. With him went Yorkshire’s hopes, as they collapsed from 237 for six to scraping one batting point.
Article courtesy of
Source link
