YORKSHIRE went on a run crawl at Scarborough today after Matthew Wood had won the toss and decided to bat first in the Frizzell Championship match against Hampshire.
Wood, however, resembled an express train compared with his New Zealand partner, Stephen Fleming, who took 47 minutes and 40 balls to get off the mark - and that was only the result of a streaky shot.
Runs then began to come more frequently and after 18 overs Yorkshire were 43 with loss with Wood 28 and Fleming 12.
But Fleming continued to struggle and in the 25th over was caught by Chris Tremlett off the bowling of James Bruce.
The new ball pair of Tremlett and Dimitri Mascarenhas gave little away and each had a maiden in the first four overs.
The only light amusement for a good-sized crowd came when Shaun Udal, fielding at mid-off, threw the ball back to Mascarenhas who was not looking and he doubled up as it hit him in the groin.
Fleming was still not off the mark in the 12th over when an appeal for a catch behind the wicket was rejected and the first boundary came from Wood who whipped Tremelett through backward square leg.
After bowling six overs for five runs, Mascarenhas was replaced by James Hamblin and Fleming immediately got his first runs as he mishooked over the top of the slips for two.
James Bruce took over from Tremlett, whose seven overs had cost 14, but Fleming's first aggressive stroke was off Hamblin, the left-hander's fierce pull going all the way to the rope.
Yorkshire made Tim Bresnan 12th man and brought left-hander Vic Craven into the match for his first Championship appearance of the season.
Craig White and Yuvraj Singh went into the game with sharply contrasting batting fortunes.
White, on his home ground, was looking to continue the phenomenal form which has brought him 338 runs for once out in his last three Championship innings.
Yuvraj, on the other hand, does not know where his next first class run is coming from and he was out for seven and a duck against Durham to leave him with 111 Championship runs from eight innings.
Updated: 15:01 Wednesday, July 23, 2003
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