Picture by Allan McKenzie/SWpix.com. Kyle Abbott celebrates dismissing George Hill.
Adam Lyth praised Hampshire’s new-ball seamer Kyle Abbott as the South African was to the fore on day two at Headingley as Yorkshire were forced onto the back foot.
Early promise saw Lyth and Matthew Revis – they posted 76 and 40 respectively – complete a 100 partnership for the fifth wicket as the White Rose recovered from 37-4 late last night and 48-4 overnight.
They batted through a shortened morning unbroken, only to both fall to Abbott, who also got George Hill.
He finished with four wickets, and in reply to 251 Yorkshire’s first innings was completed on 177. Hampshire then advanced to 93-2 second time around and closed with a commanding lead of 167.
Lyth said, with a sigh: “Tough day.
“I thought this morning, myself and Rev played well to get through that first hour. Then, just after lunch, we weren’t quite good enough to get through a very good Kyle Abbott spell.
“I thought he bowled exceptionally well. There were three nice balls, to be fair.
“The night before, three in an over nearly killed us. Then, the three wickets he got after lunch put our backs against the wall.
“It was nice to get the two wickets tonight, but it was a very frustrating day. It’s quite a difficult one to sum up.
“It actually turned into quite a nice wicket when myself and Rev were batting this morning. The sun was out, and scoring was quite easy. But Kyle’s spell broke it up.
“On a personal note, I’m really happy with the way I’m playing.
“Last week, it would have been nice to get a hundred (97, second innings at Glamorgan) and lovely to get one here as well. But it was a decent ball.
“I’m happy with the way I’m playing. Hopefully there’s many more to come.
“Rev has shown a lot of class this early season. It was nice to get partnership. Unfortunately we didn’t kick on to that 150-160, which would have put us right back in the game.
“That spell from Kyle is pretty much the difference in the game at the minute.
“We’ve got a lot of hard work to do. But, in this changing room, we’ve got a lot of fight. We’ll do our best to get back into the game.”