Andrew Gale made his first century as Yorkshire captain to transform his side’s fortunes on the second day of the County Championship encounter with Somerset at Headingley

16-Apr-2010
ScorecardAndrew Gale made his first century as Yorkshire captain to transform his side’s fortunes on the second day of the County Championship encounter with Somerset at Headingley.Yorkshire were in a difficult situation when the fall of their fifth wicket at 142 left them still trailing by 130 on the first innings but the arrears were then cleared in a sparkling 149 stand between the left-handed Gale and all-rounder Tim Bresnan. The pair had moved the score on to 291 when Gale was out for 101 from 157 balls with 16 fours, Bresnan departing soon afterwards for 61 as Yorkshire closed on 320 for 7, a lead of 48.The weather was much brighter when Yorkshire resumed in the morning on 17 for 1 and Joe Sayers and Anthony McGrath could make only slow progress against a keen pace attack, although McGrath still managed to punish the occasional loose delivery.The former captain appeared to have settled in well but, having reached 21, hewas lbw to one from Charl Willoughby which kept a shade low. Sayers continued to bat patiently and Jacques Rudolph was also becalmed before he opened his account with a cut for four off Willoughby from the 21st delivery he had received.It continued to be a tough battle for supremacy and Sayers managed to go to his50 off the final ball before lunch when Yorkshire were 106 for two, but he departed lbw to Damien Wright soon after the interval without addition to his score, his 51 coming off 119 balls with seven fours.Rudolph, having progressed smoothly to 33, then played too casually outside offstump at Alfonso Thomas and was caught by wicketkeeper Craig Kieswetter. Gale’s first three scoring shots were all boundaries and Jonny Bairstow helped himself to two consecutive fours off Wright before playing round a ball from Peter Trego to become the fourth lbw dismissal of the innings – and the ninth out of 15 wickets to fall so far in the match.There was an escape for Gale on 23 when Willoughby saw him dropped at cover by Trego but it was a rare mistake by the captain and the sixth-wicket pair really began to flourish with the arrival of the second new ball, which came with thescore on 231 for 5 from 80 overs.Bresnan reached his 50 with his seventh boundary, a powerful off-drive at Thomas’ expense, but it was Gale who dominated the scoring with two fours in an over off Thomas and three off Willoughby to give his side the lead, 47 runs having gushed from the first seven overs with the new ball.A scampered single brought Gale the seventh first-class century of his career to loud acclaim from his team-mates but, just one run later, he flung back his head in despair as he smacked a long hop from Zander de Bruyn straight to Wright at cover.The 300-mark brought Yorkshire a third batting bonus point but at 304 Bresnan was lbw attempting to force Wright. He had used up 155 balls for his 61 with eight fours, leaving Adil Rashid and Ajmal Shahzad to bat out the remainder of the day.