Yorkshire loves to celebrate its own and there was the perfect opportunity to cheer England’s latest opener to his first Test century as Adam Lyth asserted his right to partner Alastair Cook in the Ashes
David Hopps at Headingley30-May-20150:51
‘I trusted Gary’s call, I should have said no’ – Lyth
Nothing befits a Yorkshire batsman more than to make a Test hundred at Headingley. Joe Root once suggested that it didn’t get any better than to make one at Lord’s, but after sober reflection across the Broad Acres they gave him the benefit of the doubt, concluding that t’lad were chuffed to bits and couldn’t really have meant it. No, the only place to do it is Headingley, drinking in the strong flavours of the dilapidated Rugby Stand, the striking duck-egg blue pavilion with enough windows to hide a thousand seminars, and the red-brick terraces, while Boycs, Illy, Closey and the like look on approvingly.Whether it is his home ground is debatable: Adam Lyth’s strongest loyalties lie on the east coast at Scarborough where he was first spotted on the outfield as a child, whacking an orange windball into the crowd just for the hell of it. There were times in his early career when he lapsed rather too easily into windball shots. Gradually, after much self-recrimination for loose dismissals, came the discipline which has brought the compact, patient style worthy of England recognition.Lyth, at first sight, invites the prejudice that here is a well-drilled, but essentially workaday batsman. There is nothing immediately elegant about his manner. But to watch him lean serenely into a cover drive and guide it to the fence, off front and back foot, with minimum backlift is soon to become aware of an underlying serenity. Some felt New Zealand’s pace bowlers unhinged him before lunch with a spurt of short-pitched deliveries, but Boycott, for one, is not unduly concerned about whether his technique can stand up to the strain.Boycott was at his most spritely as he looked on, excited perhaps by memories of his achievement, now no more, as the last Yorkshire opener to make a Test hundred at Headingley – the celebrated occasion way back in 1977 when he ended a self-imposed Test exile, ran out the local favourite, Derek Randall, at Trent Bridge, on his return before scoring his 100th first-class hundred in the fourth Test of a victorious Ashes series.Fraught the night before, he had taken sleeping pills and arrived at the ground feeling listless, with the expectation of the crowd hanging heavily. Lyth does not look the sort to take sleeping pills. His life has simple rhythms. His progress was keenly followed 38 years later, and it was a full ground that saw him home with pride, but nothing could match the religious fervour that poured upon Boycott that day.’Things happen quickly here’ – Craig
Mark Craig admitted he knew the pressure would be on him at Headingley with New Zealand without a fifth bowler due to Corey Anderson’s injury but tried not to overcomplicate his game after a difficult first Test at Lord’s.
Craig played a key role in keeping a lid on England’s scoring so even when wickets weren’t falling – as Alastair Cook and Adam Lyth produced a huge opening stand – the game was not completely getting away from New Zealand.
Craig bowled 22 overs for 38 runs and also broke the 177-run first-wicket partnership when he had Cook lbw on the sweep; by the end of the day it was not outlandish to suggest New Zealand were ahead on points.
“Knowing we were a bowler down was big but I tried not to think about it too much,” Craig said. I was obviously disappointed with the way I bowled at Lord’s and I just needed to get stuck in. I managed to slip into a rhythm quicker and bowled a bit fuller.”
And Craig added that New Zealand never panicked as England’s openers were laying a platform, well aware that games at Headingley can change in an instance – especially with a new ball under cloud cover, which emerged in the final session.
“Things happen quite quickly over here. Once we had got one we knew we could go bang bang and things tend to happen late in the day here as well. The boys bowled two good spells with the new ball and that’s what we did. With the ball only eight overs old, we get two cracks with the new ball with another in the morning.”
Lyth is a natural sportsman – a low-handicap golfer who can be seen on the Whitby links whenever opportunity allows, and a good enough footballer to have had schoolboy trials at Manchester City before, driven in part by his fondness for life on the Yorkshire coast, he opted for cricket. Judging by his near-mishap on 90 when he almost hacked a ball from Tim Southee onto his stumps, it was a wise choice.”I should have used my left peg,” he said. “I was just relieved the bails didn’t come off.” Some aspects of his football life went well though. He is an Arsenal fan and timed his first Test hundred for England on the same day they waltzed an FA Cup final.You would expect the first England cricketer to hail from Whitby to feel at home with Captain Cook: the seafarer spent some of his life in the picturesque harbour town where a museum exists in his name. But the captain Cook to whom Lyth now commits his service is Alastair, England’s captain, and he was able to look on from the non-striker’s end as Cook, on 32, become England’s record Test runscorer.”I have never been that nervous in the 20s before but I was today,” Cook said. “I was desperate not just to go past Goochie but to do it with a bit of a score. You never imagine at the start what you might achieve.”To score a hundred on my debut gave me a great kick start to my career. It is probably a little bit like Adam felt today. To do it so early on was important for me. It has been an amazing few years, with some tough moments along the way.”Barring injury, that Cook and Lyth will open for England at the start of the Ashes series is now inevitable. If Cook is the captain, Lyth possesses the energy of the junior charge charged with shinning up the rigging to splice the mainbrace.That energy, though, was suitably channelled. After a frenzied opening day, Test cricket returned to normality. Both batsmen needed to show good judgment to survive the first hour against Southee and Trent Boult and gradually expanded their range in an opening stand of 177 in 59 overs – the first by England openers at home since Cook and Andrew Strauss, captain and confidant for the man who would succeed him, repelled India at Edgbaston in 2011.Lyth played the offspin of Mark Craig cautiously, the two boundaries he took from him within three balls to scoot to his hundred – a lofted drive which crept over the substitute Neil Wagner at mid-on, diving like a salmon caught in a strong cross current, followed by a more assertive slog sweep – were the only occasions he fully released his inhibitions. Then after the Yorkshire celebration came the Yorkshire calamity: a run-out involving his Yorkshire team-mate Gary Ballance, efficiently completed by Boult behind point. The ramifications of that were a collapse against the second new ball – a fact he recognised only too well.”I trusted Gary’s call and unfortunately it bounced up beautifully for Trent on his left arm and he is quite quick,” Lyth said. “I probably should have said no. I am disappointed I wasn’t there for the new ball. Technically it was my call, but Gary hit it and I trusted his call. Getting out like that at a crucial stage of the game I’m a bit disappointed.”Since Strauss’ retirement, Cook has gone through partners like a Tinder addict. Nick Compton became becalmed the last time New Zealand visited Headingley two years ago, and was also a little suspected by the Thought Police. Root eventually discovered himself at No 5 after being shunted hither and thither. Michael Carberry failed to pass the toughest of auditions in Australia. Sam Robson looked an ingénue. Finally, Jonathan Trott, championed as an emergency opener by Andy Flower and Cook among others, proved to be an unsuccessful remedy and announced his international retirement.All the time Lyth scored runs, turned 90s into hundreds, sometimes double hundreds, and awaited his opportunity. Even in Yorkshire for every realist who admires Lyth there were as many who coo with expectation at his batting partner Alex Lees. He has had to work for recognition from the outset. But as the man from remarked, he can at least now live in fish and chip heaven as “the best batter in Whitby.”