da bet vitoria： Mike Yardy’s century put Sussex in command at Aigburth as the champions endured another tough day
Myles Hodgson at Aigburth13-Apr-2012
ScorecardMichael Yardy’s hundred built a big lead for Sussex•Getty Images
Sussex may have provided Lancashire with their early momentum towardslast summer’s historic title success, but they have been anything butaccommodating a year on and remain on course to inflict an early andhumiliating defeat to the defending champions.Last summer’s innings victory over Sussex at Aigburth, which wasfollowed by an equally convincing triumph over Somerset, providedLancashire with the belief to go on and end their 77-year wait forChampionship success but from the first morning of their defence theyhave struggled to keep pace with a determined Sussex side led superblyby Michael Yardy.Arriving at the crease with Sussex struggling on the opening dayYardy steadied their innings and dominated a 164-run stand with EdJoyce that earned Sussex a 176-run first innings lead and set theplatform for what should be a comfortable victory at Lancashire’sMerseyside base. A further four Lancashire top order wickets beforethe close served to only put the gloss on Yardy’s earlierdetermination.”I didn’t feel in throughout the innings,” Yardy said. “I alwaysthought there was a ball with your name on it. I think it’s a goodcricket wicket. It started off a little bit damp but overall there isa bit of bounce and if you bowl well you get your rewards and if youbat well you can score.”Realising it was not a wicket to try and take liberties, Yardy washappy to play a patient game alongside the equally cautious Joyce andthey benefitted from Lancashire missing four catches behind the wicketbefore lunch. Yardy was the chief beneficiary, missed on 85 and 98, before claiming a century that was all the more remarkable for hisrecent battle against depression.For all Sussex’s domination, however, Lancashire fought backimpressively well during the afternoon session. Gareth Cross, Lancashire’s wicketkeeper, made amends for missing a regulation catchto reprieve Joe Gatting by stumping Yardy as he toppled out of hiscrease and earned Simon Kerrigan a second wicket in four overs with anequally sharp catch off Gatting’s bottom edge.Those two breakthroughs allowed Lancashire to restrict Sussex to only13 runs in the 17 overs after the interval, but the benefits of creaseoccupation were there for all to see when Amjad Khan enjoyed somelower order hitting that guided his side to 300 – an impressive totalon a wicket that claimed 13 wickets on the opening day.Facing a tricky final session and a major first innings deficit, Lancashire again struggled against Steve Magoffin, Sussex’s impressiveAustralian overseas signing. He continued his good work from the firstinnings and has consistently extracted more bounce than any otherbowler from the River End, which prompted Stephen Moore into an edgeto slip while Karl Brown fell lbw shouldering arms to his nextdelivery.Ashwell Prince, Lancashire’s South African overseas batsman, deniedMagoffin a debut hat-trick but Monty Panesar provided a glimpse of thechallenge facing the remaining batsmen by turning the ball away fromSteven Croft and clipping his off-stump bowling from the same end.Prince and Luke Procter survived 15 overs before the close, but onGrand National Day Lancashire start as rank outsiders and facing theirfirst defeat in an opening Championship match of a season since 1998when they lost at Hove.”We’re still in it because we have a couple of batters in there whoare playing well,” said Peter Moores, Lancashire’s positive-thinkingcoach. “We need to get a lot more runs yet but at Liverpool when twopeople get in it can look quite straightforward.”