da supremo： An unbroken liaison of fifty-three for the third wicket between a hardworking John Crawley and Neil Fairbrother has enabled Lancashire to workits way back into its tense struggle with Yorkshire by the end of day threeof this excellent Roses match
Staff and agencies30-Jul-2000An unbroken liaison of fifty-three for the third wicket between a hardworking John Crawley and Neil Fairbrother has enabled Lancashire to workits way back into its tense struggle with Yorkshire by the end of day threeof this excellent Roses match at Headingley.The Crawley (46*)-Fairbrother (26*) stand, which began with the visitorsstill thirty-five runs away from erasing a first innings deficit of 109runs and accordingly still in serious trouble, enabled the Lancastrians toend the day in upbeat mood and with a chance at least of leaving Leedstomorrow with their ongoing quest for Championship honours largelyundamaged. Decisions by Mike Atherton (17) to follow a Chris Elstub (1/15)outswinger and Andy Flintoff (25) to drive at a wide ball from ChrisSilverwood (1/34) had looked to be condemning the visitors to a stickypredicament, but the right hand-left hand combination offered by the thirdwicket pair soon redressed the balance. Crawley proved particularly adeptat working the ball through the square leg and mid wicket regions, while aslightly more defensively inclined Fairbrother accumulated most of his runswith deft shots into gaps on both sides of the wicket.Earlier in the day, it had been two notable transformations which hadpropelled Yorkshire toward its sizeable first innings advantage. First,the continuing mid-season metamorphosis of David Byas (81) from opener tomiddle order player resulted in possibly his most telling individualcontribution of the summer and then, the wag of an until now impotentYorkshire tail lifted the locals to the unanticipated heights of a fourthbatting point. In a brilliant response to the early loss today of chiefstrokemaker Darren Lehmann (83), Byas became the chief architect ofYorkshire’s progress toward a total of 376. He was given robust support byGary Fellows (46) and Chris Silverwood (34), whose respective ease inmixing attack with defence belied the general difficulties that hadconfronted other batsmen on the opening two days of the match.Having enjoyed a slice of fortune yesterday when the heavens opened todisturb a dangerous partnership between Byas and Lehmann, Lancashire hadhit back strongly as play began on the third morning. Without addition tohis overnight score, the latter was trapped on the back foot by MikeSmethurst (3/101) and adjudged to have been hit in line with his off stump.Glen Chapple (3/80) then further raised the Lancastrians’ hopes of claiminga first-innings lead with another lbw decision against Richard Blakey (0)in the following over. Such ambitions were, however, quickly dashed and itwas not until late in the day that matters were at least partially restored.