Foakes hits timely 76 for defending champions Surrey on opening day
Ben Foakes hits timely 76 for defending champions Surrey on opening day of the County Championship as he bids to keep his England spot with Jonny Bairstow who nears return from broken leg
- Foakes struck 76 as Surrey made 340-7 against Lancashire at Old Trafford
- Jonny Bairstow batted on the edge of the Headingley outfield in comeback bid
- Bairstow will hope to feature for Yorkshire in two games across May
Ben Foakes provided another display of his batting class on the Championship’s opening day as Jonny Bairstow took a big step forward in his attempt to take his England place.
Foakes made 76 as Surrey opened the defence of their title with a hard-earned 340 for seven against last year’s runners up Lancashire in cold and gloomy Old Trafford conditions.
And the reminder of the ability that was in evidence from Foakes for England in New Zealand this winter came as Bairstow stepped up his recovery from a badly broken leg.
Bairstow batted on the edge of the Headingley outfield during Yorkshire’s division two match against Leicestershire across the Pennines and hopes to play as a keeper-batsman in two Championship matches next month ahead of England’s Test against Ireland on June 1.
That will increase the pressure on Foakes, who insisted earlier this week he would cope with the perennial speculation over his England place and Bairstow’s imminent return by ignoring it and concentrating on what he does best with both bat and gloves.
Ben Foakes hit 76 for Surrey on the opening day of the county Championship (above)
Foakes will be hoping strong Surrey form can help keep his place in the England Test team
Foakes was using a borrowed bat on Thursday, too, in his partnership of 87 with another talented keeper-batsman in Jamie Smith and then 75 with Cam Steel, who finished unbeaten on 86, after leaving his own bats on the coach that brought Surrey to Manchester on Wednesday from London.
As Bairstow practised, a highly-promising 20-year-old from Harrogate in the form of Fin Bean took his opportunity to shine by hitting the first century of the Championship season in Yorkshire’s 285 for three off 60 overs against last year’s bottom county.
Bean made his 118 off 149 balls, seemingly following the wishes of Ben Stokes and Brendon McCullum who hope their ultra-positive style with England will extend to the shires. The more experienced Dawid Malan added a just as positive unbeaten 91.
Yorkshire were helped in their gallop by a nightmare start to the season for one of the most exciting prospects in the domestic game in leg-spinning all-rounder Rehan Ahmed.
Ahmed, who made his England debuts in Test, one-day international and T20 cricket at 18 during the winter, was preferred by Leicestershire to the more experienced spinner in Callum Parkinson but was hit for 22 off his very first over.
Jonny Bairstow took big steps with Yorkshire on his way to recovering from a broken leg
The teenager opened with a head-high full toss that was pummelled to the leg-side boundary by the left-handed Bean and adjudged a no-ball. When another full bunger was dispatched to a similar region Ahmed had conceded 10 runs from one legitimate delivery.
Two further Bean boundaries followed before Ahmed was withdrawn from the Leicestershire attack and only returned late on a rain-affected opening day.
The elements, inevitably at such an early date for the start of the domestic season, played a big part elsewhere, the first day of Somerset’s match against Warwickshire being called off first thing yesterday morning. So wet is the Taunton outfield that there are fears that the whole game might be abandoned.
Glamorgan, meanwhile, contributed to their own problems as their hover cover broke down while protecting the Sophia Gardens pitch and stopped any play against Gloucestershire before lunch.
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