The new Yorkshire captain Jonny Bairstow left the Headingley field bemused and furious after being judged caught behind on the opening day of his side’s County Championship match against Worcestershire.
In his first outing as captain on his home ground, 35-year-old Bairstow was given out caught behind for seven off seamer Adam Finch when taking evasive action from a gentle short ball.
The ball appeared to pass above his glove but the Worcestershire fielders appealed vociferously and the umpire raised his finger. Bairstow looked back at the official and appeared to gesture towards his midriff – suggesting the ball had made contact with his jumper – before looking to the square-leg umpire, to no avail. Bairstow then trudged off, but not before appearing to exchange words with the Worcestershire fielders. As he crossed the boundary, he swished his bat in frustration.
That left Yorkshire 179 for four, but Bairstow’s side rallied to a strong position later in the day – 425 for eight at stumps – despite the former England batsman Dawid Malan falling two short of his first hundred of the season.
Bairstow has not played Test cricket since earning his 100th cap in Dharamsala in March 2024, and has not played any format for England since the T20 World Cup that summer. Despite his exile, he remains a player contracted by the national side until October this year, and this week the new white-ball captain Harry Brook said he remains under consideration.
Bairstow will be desperate, therefore, to get off to a good start in county cricket this summer to make a statement to the selectors. But he was left to rue his misfortune after being given out when he appeared to have missed the ball.
Yorkshire lost his first match in charge, away at Hampshire last weekend, but the captain scored a quick second-innings half-century. Bairstow is following in his late father David’s footsteps as captain of Yorkshire.
Crawley struggles as McKinney and Sibley make hay
On a day that saw the England opener Zak Crawley fall for a four-ball duck for Kent in Division Two, there were two significant centuries by openers in the top flight.
One was from a player many consider a Test batsman in waiting, Durham’s Ben McKinney, while the other was by Surrey’s Dom Sibley, who has evolved his game significantly since playing the last of his 22 Tests almost four years ago.
Crawley fell to a marginal lbw off Toby Roland-Jones as Kent stumbled to 172 for six having bowled Middlesex out for 222 on the first day at Canterbury. This continued an uncomfortable start to the season for Crawley, who experienced a downturn in his form with England in the latter part of the year, and would love a strong run in the domestic game before facing Zimbabwe at Trent Bridge on May 22.
McKinney is perhaps the closest challenger to Crawley’s place in the Test XI right now. The 20-year-old left-hander from Sunderland is even taller than Crawley at 6ft 7in, and scored a superb hundred for England Lions against Australia A in Sydney earlier this year.
He kick-started his season with a superb hundred against a depleted Warwickshire attack at the Riverside. After defeat at Trent Bridge last weekend, how McKinney’s team needed it. By the time he reached his third first-class century, he had Matt Potts, who made a half-century from No 9, for company, with Durham’s powerful batting line-up reaching stumps on 343 for seven. McKinney was unbeaten on 143.
Sibley played a key role in Surrey’s salvaging of a draw at Essex on Monday, and the champions were grateful as he carried his bat for the sixth time in his championship career for exactly 100 not out.
Before a crowd of more 5,639 at the Oval against a Hampshire side who finished second last season, Sibley was occasionally aggressive, upper-cutting the excellent Sonny Baker over the slips, but played the situation superbly, reaching his hundred from 217 balls, to offset a quiet day for Surrey’s vaunted batting line-up. In response to Surrey’s 253, Hampshire reached stumps on 55 for one, with Dan Worrall taking a wicket, Fletcha Middleton bowled, in his first over of the season.
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