Cricketers kissing the badge on their batting helmets, when reaching personal landmarks has become such an accepted part of a player’s celebration ritual as to be an almost everyday occurrence, but none can have done it with more heartfelt emotion than Michael Yardy did yesterday.
In his penultimate championship appearance at Hove, having announced that he will retire at the age of 34 at the end of the season, Yardy made 124, the 22nd first-class hundred of a yeoman’s career and his first since May last year, and what will have meant most to him is that it was an innings that could yet help to save Sussex from demotion to the second division.
When Yardy lofted Glenn Maxwell’s off spin straight for two runs, completing a 200-ball century in almost four hours at the crease, with 14 fours, he also raised his bat aloft in gladiatorial fashion to signal his achievement and to acknowledge the crowd’s standing ovation.
That there were fewer than 1,000 spectators in the ground, as opposed to the 3,500 who attended on Friday and the near-2,000 who turned up for the second day, was due to heavy morning rain, which prevented any play until 2pm. Yet the sun was shining again by the time Yardy got to three figures on his beloved home ground, and dedication to the Sussex cause is clearly all the motivation he still needs as a 16-year career dogged by a depressive illness draws to a close.
Indeed, being slapped for 34 runs in an over by David Willey, in the NatWest T20 Blast quarter-final defeat against Northamptonshire ten days ago, has tested Yardy’s mental resolve one last time and, as so often before, he has risen to the challenge.
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Ben Brown, with a stylish 84-ball hundred, Ollie Robinson and, briefly, Luke Wright all helped Yardy to steer Sussex to invaluable maximum batting bonus points on a sluggish surface, but the way Yorkshire’s players ran to shake Yardy’s hand when he was eventually leg-before to Ryan Sidebottom told its own story about the last survivor of Sussex’s historic 2003 championship triumph, a club captain for four seasons, and the winner of seven domestic trophies.
Yardy, a Twenty20 World Cup winner in 2010, has won 28 limited-overs international and 14 T20 caps besides the championship in 2003, 2006 and 2007, the C&G Trophy in 2006, the National League in 2008 and 2009 and the Twenty20 Cup in 2009. His left-arm bowling has been central to Sussex’s one-day titles, as well as to England’s World Cup victory, but it was his batting which counted yesterday.
Resuming on seven, in Sussex’s overnight 175 for four, Yardy set out determinedly on the long haul towards as many batting points as it was possible to muster and, in 21-year-old nightwatchman Robinson, he found a willing partner in a fifth wicket partnership that raised 97 in 33 overs.
Robinson had made 48 from 84 balls, in a spirited two-hour stay, when he sliced a widish half-volley from Liam Plunkett into the gully, where Maxwell held a smart low catch. Yardy’s next partner was Wright, who thumped four fours and a flicked six over square leg in 23 from 24 balls before, attempting a similar shot against the next ball from Steven Patterson, lost his middle stump.
With Brown quickly into his stride, and with Yorkshire’s bowlers struggling for sustained accuracy on an unforgiving pitch, 210 runs came in 33 overs after the tea interval, with Brown breezing to his fifty from 40 balls, with eleven fours, and the 400 arriving in the 106th over.
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Yardy, having added 135 with Brown, batted overall for 286 minutes and hit 18 fours from the 233 balls he faced, and in the evening sunshine runs continued to flow as Brown reached his hundred from just 84 balls. A poor forecast for tomorrow’s final day means a draw is almost certain, but the 12 points that second-from-bottom Sussex would take from that will be more than welcome.