da bet esporte： Anthony McGrath appears to have ensured his continued involvementin Yorkshire’s Championship line-up after scoring a defiant century to bring his side back into their contest with Hampshire.
da poker： Myles Hodgson at Headingley18-May-2012
ScorecardAnthony McGrath’s Yorkshire career seemed in decline but a century against Hampshire and some useful bowling spells this season have given him new life•Getty Images
Had circumstances been different at the start of this summer, AnthonyMcGrath may not have even featured in Yorkshire’s Championshipline-up, but he appears to have ensured his continued involvementafter scoring a defiant century to bring his side back into theircontest with Hampshire.Now 36, McGrath’s struggles for runs last season – when he scored onlyone century and one half-century in 23 Championship innings – put himunder threat for his place at the start of this summer, particularlyafter Yorkshire strengthened their batting by recruiting AustralianPhil Jaques during the winter.Rather than shirk from the challenge, McGrath has demonstrated hisversatility by claiming wickets and scoring 90 in Yorkshire’s recentwin against Leicestershire, and has now scored his first century sincelast August to prevent Hampshire establishing control of the match.Without McGrath’s controlled contribution, Yorkshire would have beenfacing a major first-innings deficit and the prospect of battling tosave the game on the final day. Instead, he helped prise 162 pricelessruns out of the final three wickets to enable a declaration 28 runsadrift on 399 for 9.”Going into the season, we had plenty of batting options,” he said.”It was always going to be tough on selection, so whoever played wasalways going to have to get some runs. I failed early on at No 3 andgot pushed down to 6 or 7. I’ve felt really good all season, to behonest, but it’s about getting runs on the board.”Yorkshire’s first target, batting under cloudy conditions, was to savethe follow on after resuming 178 runs away from making Hampshire batagain. Although they enjoyed their share of good fortune with bothGary Ballance and Jacques Rudolph edging through the slips during a149-run stand, they appeared to have reached a position where theycould take control of the game.That position was undermined by the loss of four wickets either sideof lunch that left Yorkshire in danger of following on with a majordeficit. The experience of McGrath, playing 17 years to the day aftermaking his Yorkshire debut against Glamorgan at Bradford, in battingwith the lower order proved the key point of the day.Teaming up with Ryan Sidebottom 191 runs adrift, McGrath carefullyguided Yorkshire closer, firstly to the follow on target and then gavethem the opportunity to declare with 10 overs remaining, only for badlight to halt proceedings with 2.4 overs unused. They enjoyed theirluck, with Sidebottom being dropped on 20 by James Tomlinson in hisdelivery stride.McGrath also received a reprieve, missed on 61 by Simon Katich at slipoff Kabir Ali, but they added 84 for the eighth wicket beforeSidebottom edged Kabir behind. McGrath continued aggressively and hit LiamDawson’s left-arm spin for four and a straight six off successiveballs to take Yorkshire nearer saving the follow on.Once Steve Patterson edged Dawson to slip, leaving McGrath 16 short ofthree figures as last man Iain Wardlaw arrived at the crease, he wasforced to adopt a more tactical approach and for the first time in hisfour-hour innings he refused singles to keep the strike.The landmark, which included 14 fours and a six, was reached with atwo to cover off Dawson and marked with considerably less fuss thanthe England captain at Lord’s – McGrath bent down, straightened hispads and took off his helmet, before politely acknowledging the crowd’sapplause.”It’s been tough for everyone around the country to get runs,” McGrath said. “There are a few guys who have got 600 to 700 runs, but foreverybody else it’s been pretty sparse. You’ve got to fight it out andhave a bit of luck, like I did today, but when you get in you’ve gotto try and cash in.”I just want to play in the first team so I’m happy to play in anyposition. It was a tough year last year as we all know, so I’m really enjoying it at the moment. It’s a satisfaction to reach threefigures with the troubles I had last year. I think the situation ofthe game took away my thoughts of reaching a hundred though.”Hoping to bowl 10 overs at Hampshire before the close, Yorkshire wereonly given 7.2 overs before bad light closed in, but enough time for Dawson to slap an Adil Rashid long hop straight to point to suggest there may be life in the game yet.
