Picture by John Heald. Adam Lyth celebrates his afternoon fifty today.
SCORECARD
Adam Lyth scored a fine final-day 97 which contributed to Yorkshire’s opening-round draw with Glamorgan at Cardiff after a brief dart at a 295-target.
Opener Lyth had scored a century this time last year in defeat against Hampshire. And while he just missed out on the same this time, he ensured a better outcome as the White Rose claimed 10 points to Glamorgan’s 12.
Glamorgan declared just before lunch on 218-5, with Colin Ingram on 75 and Dom Bess having claimed four more wickets. That left that 295-target in a minimum of 68 overs.
And at 125-1 with 34 overs remaining at tea, and Lyth unbeaten on 77, Yorkshire had a very realistic chance of victory. However, three wickets falling for the addition of 37 runs inside 10 overs after the break ended the victory hopes and made the task one of survival.
Thankfully, it was achieved successfully, though not without further alarm. Lyth made his 97 off 150 balls, though fell to leave the score at 174-5 with a little more than 21 overs remaining.
Yorkshire finished on 239-7 from 67.4 overs, with George Hill unbeaten on 21 at the end alongside Logan van Beek on five.
Glamorgan started day four on 111-3 from 45 overs, leading by 187.
Initially, their progress was watchful as captain Carlson and Ingram advanced their fourth-wicket partnership to 76. In the final half hour or so before lunch, the hosts really put their foot down through the latter and new partner Ben Kellaway.
Picture by John Heald. Dom Bess claimed four second-innings wickets to take his match tally to seven.
There was power and invention from left-handed veteran Ingram after he had lost Carlson bowled by a turning delivery from Bess which looked for all money that it had been played on.
That left the score at 153-4 in the 61st over, a lead of 239.
In pretty much 13 overs which followed, another 65 runs were added, of which an unbeaten 28 went to all-rounder Kellaway.
Ingram slog-swept Bess for six over mid-wicket to add to a handful of boundaries.
Bess then gained revenge when, seven or eight minutes before lunch, Ingram tried to launch him over long-off but could only miscue into the hands of Matthew Revis, who took his third catch of the innings and fourth in the match.
Aided by conditions, Bess bowled beautifully in this match to start the season in ideal fashion. He recorded match figures of 7-129 from 54.2 overs.
The declaration came immediately with the Ingram wicket, and it was somewhat of a surprise for a side who have just been promoted and are playing the first top-flight game since 2005.
They had given Yorkshire a sniff, and every credit to them for their positivity.
And Lyth and Fin Bean set about making them regret that decision, taking 64 runs off the first 12 overs on a lovely South Wales springtime day.
Picture by John Heald. Colin Ingram posted a second-innings fifty for Glamorgan today to go with his first-innings century.
With leg-spinner Mason Crane having struck five times in the first innings on a helpful surface, he was always likely to be the main threat.
So it was a notable moment when Bean pulled a four and six to and over the mid-wicket fence off his first two balls at the start of the seventh over, taking the score to 33-0.
Unfortunately, having given himself a platform by getting into the early twenties, Bean – on 23 to be precise – was trapped lbw pushing forwards to Crane as the score fell to 67-1 after 15.
Not long afterwards, Lyth reached his fifty off 57 balls with a slog-swept boundary off Crane, his ninth at that juncture.
Lyth, who went beyond 16,000 first-class runs today, found another partner in Sam Whiteman, and they continued to strengthen Yorkshire’s position through to tea, where the visitors reached at 125-1 from 34 overs.
With another 34 remaining, Yorkshire needed 170 more – Lyth 77 and Whiteman 24.
Whiteman got a leading edge to mid-wicket against Crane two balls into the evening – 125-2 – and when that was followed 14 runs later by the same bowler removing James Wharton bowled pulling, the target all of a sudden looked a long way away.
Even with Lyth still at the crease and approaching a century, it quickly became evident that the target was going to be beyond Yorkshire.
Picture by John Heald. Glamorgan captain Kiran Carlson is bowled by Dom Bess this morning.
With 25 overs remaining, Yorkshire needed 134 more at 161-3 with Lyth on 94 and Will Luxton on five.
That theory was strengthened almost immediately when Luxton, playing to leg, was trapped lbw by Ryan Hadley’s seam with only one more run added.
Lyth fell caught behind pushing forwards to Ben Kellaway’s off-spin – 174-5 in the 47th over.
From there, Matthew Revis and George Hill united for the best part of 13 overs to give Yorkshire a lift, though there were plenty of oohs and arghs from the Glamorgan fielders as spinners Crane – eight wickets in the match – and Kellaway wheeled away in tandem. Both Revis and Hill were dropped in the early stages of their innings.
When Revis was caught behind off Ryan Hadley’s pace for 27, seemingly caught in two minds as to whether to defend or drive, it was 212-6 with 8.4 overs left.
The remaining overs had been halved by the time Hadley got Bess caught at first slip – 232-7.
Hill and Logan van Beek then saw out the remaining overs, the former finishing with 21.
Yorkshire face Hampshire at Headingley, starting on Friday.