One-Day Cup
All the previews and reports from the 50-over competition
Pages 4-9
JONNY Bairstow admits he was relieved to take his chance when it came after scoring a careerbest 174 for Yorkshire as they eased to a sixwicket victory over Durham.
The England international helped the Vikings maintain their 100 per cent start to the One-Day Cup with their third win in the North Group.
Stephen Cook and Michael Richardson both hit centuries for Durham as they posted 335-5 but it was not enough as Yorkshire pair Bairstow and England Test captain Joe Root took the game away from the visitors at Headingley.
And Bairstow was delighted to hit some form with the bat before he heads off to join England.
He said:“I got a bit of a chance and, as we know, you have to take every chance you can get.
“I missed one the other night, and luckily it didn’t cost us too much. When you get a chance, you want to go on and make it pay.
“It’s either bat there (open) or bat six when you look at the lineup we’ve got at the moment.
“If I can spend as much time out in the middle as possible, hopefully I can put in performances that help us win games of cricket.
“It’s pretty handy having Peter (Handscomb) and Gary (Ballance) to come in at four and five and knock the rest of the runs off. It’s a good side we’ve got at the moment, but it’s going to be a tough few games coming up.
“A few of us aren’t available now, and we’ve said all along about the squad and how well it needs to gel together.”
Keaton Jennings set the visitors on their way with 72 before a brilliant boundary catch by Handscomb brought his innings to an end.
South Africa Test opener Cook’s 108-ball century was his first for Durham, while Richardson reached three figures from only 87 balls, with two runs off the final delivery of their innings.
However, they were overshadowed by Bairstow, who revelled in his new role at the top of the order and raced to his hundred from 70 balls.
He was particularly punishing on the leg-side but was eventually caught behind from the final ball of the 34th over, leaving Yorkshire to score 87 from the final 16.
That was the third highest score for Yorkshire in limitedovers cricket, behind Darren Lehmann in 2001 and Travis Head last year.
Skipper Ballance hit three successive boundaries off Paul Coughlin in his 29 before treading on his stumps, leaving Handscomb (47no) and Tim Bresnan to finish the job and guide Yorkshire home.
Durham skipper Jennings said: “You’ve got to take your hat off to a guy like Jonny. You don’t come in and play the way he did day in, day out. He hit every ball out of the middle and made it really tough for us.
“I wouldn’t take any credit away from Rooty either. He supported him beautifully to make sure that partnership kept hurting us. Between the two of them, they were sensational.
“At the halfway point, I’d have said we were favourites. I thought we had enough runs despite their line-up but we gave him a couple of chances.”