Date-stamped : 28 Aug95 - 22:29 CC: Yorkshire v Middlesex, Headingley, 24-28 August 1995 ====> Day 1, 24 Aug 95 Ramprakash in resolute mood - Neville Scott First day of four: Middlesex 346-4 v Yorkshire NOT since 1977, when three counties went into the season`s last day bitterly contesting the title and Middlesex went on to tie with Kent, has the championship promised so gripping a finish. Nor is the drama restricted to the front-runners. Yorkshire are one of at least four sides with realistic hopes of fifth-place prize money, an honour unknown here since 1978. Led by another Mark Ramprakash hundred of intelligence and for- midable security, leaders Middlesex made all the convincing strides. Since his demotion from England`s ranks, Ramprakash has scored 958 runs in seven championship games at 119.75. The Middlesex strategy has been classically simple: they score runs more rapidly than any other side and in greater volume than all but Warwickshire. The attack has taken wickets more cheaply and conceded fewer runs per over than all their rivals. To find momentum on a surface of low bounce and no pace required all their awareness and unselfishness. Groundsman Keith Boyce`s last Headingley pitch, unlike Custer`s last stand, was hardly designed for heroism. With Ramprakash as the anchor after Jason Pooley had gone to an inside edge catch, pushing indecisively in the 10th over, acceleration came in stands of 62 and 63 at four per over for the third and fourth wickets. Reaching a century off 230 balls, crafted from straight drives, safe sweeps and glances, Ramprakash expanded to add 105 runs with Keith Brown in the final 30 overs, despite two interruptions for bad light. It was an impeccably calculating display with which Yorkshire`s lack of rigour, Peter Hartley apart, contrasted poor- ly. However unavailing the pitch, championship honours can owe everything to long-haul persistence. Of Ramprakash`s partners, Paul Weekes helped build a foundation before going lbw attempting to whip through the on-side and Mike Gatting and John Carr fell trying to maintain the impetus. Source :: The Electronic Telegraph (http://www.telegraph.co.uk) Contributed by The Management (help@cricinfo.com) ====> Day 2, 25 Aug 95 Ramprakash strikes career best - Neville Scott Second day of four: Yorks (202-3) trail Middx (516-9 dec) by 314 runs MARK RAMPRAKASH`S phenomenal display of character and resilience in the face of acute disappointment after his England demotion continued but, for Middlesex`s championship bid, the Yorkshire wickets then teased from a grudging pitch were equally critical. After completing his third double-century of the season, Ram- prakash reached a career-best 235 from 425 balls, by pivoting on one leg to flick Craig White disdainfully away for six. Seventh out, at 506, 20 minutes after lunch, he fell to a thin edge pul- ling at White`s next delivery. Such shots were uncharacteristic. Largely eschewing cross-bat strokes until entirely set, Ramprakash has almost eliminated risk of late without compromising his clean elegance. The 31 fours in an eight-hour innings was a very low percentage of boundaries. In a sequence which has brought 1,052 runs in nine championship innings since his pair against the West Indies at Lord`s, he has made 214 on the weekend of his omission and 135, 205, 155 and now 235 during each subsequent Test. There is a message here about temperament. Ramprakash`s overall championship aggregate of 1,571 is currently five runs greater than Aravinda de Silva`s but his average, 87.28, is more than 20 runs per innings better than all others except Martyn Moxon`s and half of Moxon`s innings have been not out. As Middlesex moved from 346 for four overnight to a declaration 45 minutes after lunch, Ramprakash took his fifth-wicket stand with Keith Brown to 170 and later added 84 with John Emburey. On a slow pitch against an attack limited to one first-choice seamer, a follow-on target of 367 was always attainable if Yorkshire could emulate Ramprakash`s patience and conviction against spin. Though Michael Vaughan went first ball, checking his drive on the up, David Byas, Michael Bevan and White helped their captain ad- vance the reply halfway to immediate safety. Emburey eventually deceived Byas beautifully in the flight and fellow, more occasional off-spinner, Paul Weekes, had the other left-hander, Bevan, at silly point. Source :: The Electronic Telegraph (http://www.telegraph.co.uk) Contributed by The Management (help@cricinfo.com) ====> Day 3, 26 Aug 95 Emburey and Tufnell back at perfect pitch - Neville Scott Third day of four: Yorks (250 & 179-2) trail Middlesex (516-9d) by 85 runs PART OF the reason - talent apart - why Middlesex will be seeking to maintain their lead over Warwickshire tomorrow is that they have concentrated, mostly without lapse, on exploiting Keith Boyce`s last pitch as Headingley groundsman. Yorkshire have sim- ply tended to resent it. Complaint that it has played into the hands of a spinning pair, John Emburey and Phil Tufnell, who have now taken 108 of Middlesex`s 252 wickets this campaign, identifies the wrong prob- lem. Martyn Moxon, with calm, graceful innings of 104 and 78 yester- day, offered an exemplary technical and moral lead. In anoth- er injury-blighted season, the Yorkshire captain, for whom admira- tion grows by the summer, has now made 790 runs in his last 12 innings, four undefeated. Yet such has been the tendency of his side`s late middle order and tail to sink without trace that chances of an escape remain slim. Yorkshire, following on, were 87 behind with eight wickets standing when rain ended play 45 minutes early. At the first attempt, resuming on 202 for three, they needed 165 more to avoid following on. There was just a suggestion, through 65 overs of the reply on Friday, that Middlesex believed their match-winning formula might work of its own accord. Yet Middlesex are nothing if not professional andtheir arousal from complacency was chilling. Between them, Emburey and Tufnell produced a combined morning analysis of 31.5-12-40-7. The contest became almost unfair. On a pitch of palpable, but usually slow turn, Yorkshire slumped to 250 all out, despite a half-hour rain stoppage, 25 minutes before lunch. Craig White, lbw when static against Emburey, and Ashley Metcalfe, reinstated at No 6 to counter recent collapses, were both gone in the first 12 overs. Tufnell, shambling in from the Oval in mid-afternoon on Thursday as though from a shipwreck rather than the London train - and all the more affectionately applauded for it - then took Moxon`s key wicket with a faster ball which bit and lifted before the remainder, mesmerised, succumbed. Going in again, Yorkshire`s efforts, and their captain`s dedica- tion, put the pitch in context. After a 95-run opening stand of character, Michael Vaughan made the error of going back to one from Tufnell which scuttled on before David Byas`s composure car- ried him through the final 42 overs for 33. But in the gloom, Tufnell produced one of the few balls to gain violent turn, removing Moxon and with him, perhaps, hopes of a draw. Source :: The Electronic Telegraph (http://www.telegraph.co.uk) Contributed by The Management (help@*ogi.edu) ====> Day 4, 28 Aug 95 Emburey ensures continued top billing - Neville Scott Middlesex (516-9 dec) bt Yorks (250 & 241) by an innings & 25 runs AS Middlesex had swept aside the last eight Yorkshire wickets 20 minutes before lunch, not even momentarily did they surrender their five-point championship lead over Warwickshire rivals who have become all too pushy about dining at the top table. During a sequence of eight consecutive wins since mid-June, with a lowest victory margin of 140 runs, Middlesex have dropped just one of a possible 192 points. John Emburey`s pitiless disposal of opposing batsmen approached cruelty. With his third ball, bowling the first over, he had Michael Bevan kicking at his off-break but deflecting it via glove to silly point. His next 109 deliveries brought six more successes and a first seven-wicket bag for two years. Spinners completed 90 per cent of Middlesex`s bowling in this match and, sustaining a rate of fire of 22 overs per hour, barely provided pause to draw breath. When they sense fear or frailty, Emburey or Phil Tufnell, sup- ported by the street-wise menace of their close fields, remain the championship`s most remorseless alliance. Tufnell interrupted Emburey`s flow by removing Craig White with a faster ball but neither bowler now is ever really slow through the air. When, in the previous over, David Byas had rightly tried to lift the siege by presuming to advance on Emburey, Keith Brown`s stumping was only his fourth off both men this summer. After repeated recent collapses, Yorkshire`s decline was inevit- able - the last seven batsmen went in 80 minutes. Richard Bla- key, enduring a summer of 266 championship runs at 13.3 which has destroyed his confidence, went meekly to a catch at short leg. Peter Hartley disputed Emburey`s right to beset and harry by sweeping, but the line, round the wicket for once, cramped his shot and he was caught superbly on the square-leg boundary, where Dion Nash then held Chris Silverwood`s swipe. Bowling Richard Stemp through the gate, Emburey was on a hat- trick, resisted next over by Ashley Metcalfe, before Mark Robin- son succumbed. Middlesex now go to a turning pitch at Uxbridge today for a Tufburey v Kumble contest against Northamptonshire which may decide the title. Source :: The Electronic Telegraph (http://www.telegraph.co.uk) Contributed by The Management (help@*ogi.edu)