Date-stamped : 06 Jul97 - 10:18 Little sign of aid for fluent Byas By Paul Newman at Leicester First day of four: Yorkshire 149-5 v Leicestershire IT was not without irony that, when umpires Peter Willey and Nigel Plews inspected the Grace Road wicket at 1.30pm yester- day, they were more in danger of sunburn than a soaking. It summed up Leicestershire`s fortunes. The champions have suffered more than most from the summer deluge, losing the whole of their previous `festival` match against Warwickshire and a grand total of 1,200 championship overs to the elements so far this season. A further delay yesterday because of a soggy run-up - suffered while the sun shone gloriously on Grace Road - was close to be- ing the final straw. As sure as night follows day, cloud cover followed the play- ers` arrival and, in between further stoppages, Yorkshire strug- gled to shake the rust out of their system when they embarked on their first championship innings for two weeks. Only David Byas was able to show real fluency, galloping along to a 49-ball fifty and finishing unbeaten on 66 while his col- leagues struggled to master the swing of Alan Mullally and, in an im- pressively hostile spell, the 19-year-old James Ormond. Yet it was the inconsistent medium pace of Vince Wells which reaped most reward, claiming the wickets of Darren Lehmann and Bradley Parker in successive deliveries. Source :: The Electronic Telegraph (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/) Yorks play into hands of Mullally By Paul Newman at Leicester Second day of four: Leics (5-1) trail Yorks (268) by 263 runs THE Yorkshire team, en masse, sharpened up their football skills again on the Grace Road outfield yesterday while a couple of Leices- tershire players, aptly in view of their close proxim- ity to the Tigers, preferred the oval ball. They had little else to keep them busy. While we can deduce from this that Ryan Sidebottom, the York- shire debutant, has a sweet left foot and James Whitaker, the Le- icestershire captain, needs to work on his place kicking, the alternative entertainment provided few clues as to where this match is go- ing. Play was confined to the morning session and, in the 30.4 overs Alan Mullally showed again that he is a formidable per- former at county level while offering a sprinkling of the mediocre fare which ended his nine-match run in the England side. Mullally switched ends yesterday and took four of the five Yorkshire wickets to fall to finish with five for 103, but there were twice as many no balls as wicket-taking deliveries and a further two wides. Yorkshire also did their best to boost Mullally`s figures, David Byas driving at a wide one 12 runs short of his second successive century, Richard Blakey edging down the leg side and Chris Silverwood providing Paul Nixon with another catch. Source :: The Electronic Telegraph (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/) Leics v Yorks Third day of four: Leics (363-6) lead Yorks (268) by 95 runs JAMES Whitaker rather enjoys playing against his native coun- ty. Last year he made a double hundred to add to two previous centuries against Yorkshire and yesterday he almost added anoth- er in swashbuck- ling style, writes Paul Newman. Whitaker decided his best chance of forcing a result in this shortened game was to build a lead rather than declaring be- hind and while he was adding 150 in 38 overs with Darren Mad- dy, Leicestershire looked likely to take a formidable grip. That they did not seize complete control was due to a burst of three wickets in six balls which ensured that Yorkshire go into the last day with every hope of securing a draw. Source :: The Electronic Telegraph (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/) Ormond quick on the uptake By Geoffrey Dean at Leicester Leics drew with Yorks JAMES WHITAKER has never liked losing to his native Yorkshire and who could blame him for trying to win this match the proper way. That is to say by bowling the opposition out twice rather than in a run-chase which would have given the Tykes an undeserved chance of victory. Leicestershire, poor chasers, believed in any case that Yorkshire would set them a nigh impossible tar- get on such a flat pitch. So it was that in lovely batting conditions under a gloriously warm sun, Yorkshire batted out time to save the game, doing so with ease. After tea with nothing at stake and under no pres- sure, Darren Lehmann stuck his fist in the honeypot, career- ing from 50 to 150 in just 60 balls. His 163 not out came off 146 deliveries and included five sixes. It was his third champi- onship hundred of the summer. Leicestershire were left to reflect on the fact that they have been deprived of nearly 1,350 championship overs this season, 139 of them in this match. That is the main reason why they have won only a single game this year and are the only unbeaten coun- ty. Another im- portant factor has been Grace Road pitches. All have been rather too good. This one lacked both pace and carry, but after the monsoon that was June no blame can be at- tributed to the groundsman, Steve Wright. Without sun on them, pitches will never have any pace unless extra grass is left. "They were much quicker last year," recalled David Millns nos- talgically. Flat pitch or not, James Ormond hurried the Yorkshire batsmen, bowling quicker at times than both Millns and Alan Mullally, and looks a real prospect. Not 20 until next month, Ormond played for England Under-19 last year and looks to have put on at least an extra yard of pace since. His six wickets against the Australians last month will have alerted the national selectors to his development. Strongly built and 6ft 2in tall, he has every chance of being picked for the England A tour to Sri Lanka this winter. Ormond had both Yorkshire openers lbw yesterday. His second victim was Martyn Moxon, whose 63 was a polished innings full of attrac- tive drives hit unerringly along the ground. Ormond`s emergence has been timely for Leicestershire in that their overseas all-rounder Neil Johnson has been unable to bowl re- cently owing to an Achilles injury. Johnson has decided not to make himself available for the country of his birth, Zimbabwe, for at least another year de- spite being offered the chance to play Test cricket this Septem- ber against New Zealand. He will continue to play Castle Cup cricket with Natal this winter in the hope of being selected by South Africa, for whom he has made two A team appearances thus far. Source :: The Electronic Telegraph (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/) Contributed by The Management (help@cricinfo.com)