The 2-day inter-squad friendly between a Gerard Brophy XI and a Steve Patterson XI ended in a moral victory for Patterson’s side by 60 runs, but the exercise of getting all of the playing squad outdoor match practice was more important and a great success.

PHOTO: Ryan Sidebottom, back in a Yorkshire shirt, had figures of 10-4-17-0 and looked impressive at Banks CC

Patterson was the star of Day 2 taking 3-36 from 15 typically miserly overs. Moin Ashraf took 2-26 and Azeem Rafiq, having been disappointed with a wicket-less Day 1 for the Brophy XI, switched allegiances and will sleep more soundly after claiming 2-20.

Both sides were supplemented by three local cricketers to make up the numbers and the term ‘friendly’ was most certainly a misnomer as neither side wanted to lose bragging rights.

Chasing 204 for victory, the Brophy XI resumed Day 2 on a periless 20-4 after Sayers, Brophy, Nurse and Hodgson had gone the previous evening. Wickets continued to fall at regular intervals and at 62-7 it seemed the day was going to end extremely prematurely.

Ryan Sidebottom (33) rallied with Gurman Randhawa (22) to add 34 for the 8^th wicket and a spirited unbeaten 29 from James Lee took the match into the second session, but the writing had long been on the wall. At the end of the game the squad remained for an hour for an additional practice session.

The Patterson XI’s total of 203 all out was built around good knocks from Nekoli Parris 57, Gary Ballance 42 and Richard Pyrah 39. The two Yorkshire players in that trio looked impressive in the morning session, reaching 90-2 by lunch. Pyrah fell just before the break lunch and had looked good for more runs, when he attempted to pull Martin Nurse into the Banks Brewery, but a top edge was comfortably pouched at square leg.

Ballance was run out shortly after the lunch interval. The young left-hander looks fit and eager after spending a very successful winter piling up runs in Zimbabwean cricket. His knock included a big six over deep square off Oliver Hannon-Dalby.

Ryan Sidebottom made an impressive return to Yorkshire colours finishing with 10-4-17-0, beating the bat at regular intervals.

The squad will train at the Kensington Oval on Friday afternoon ahead of the Twenty20 Cup.

Brophy and Patterson captained the two sides in the absence of Andrew Gale (Lions tour) and Anthony McGrath (knee). It remains to be seen whether this match was a face-off for Yorkshire captaincy when the Twenty20 Cup starts on Saturday at the Kensington Oval. There will be regular updates on Yorkshire’s progress in that competition on this official website and on the official Twitter feed.

JAMES BUTTLER IN BARBADOS

Steve Patterson XI (batting first):  Root, Ballance, Pyrah, Wainwright, Willey, Parris, Patterson (c), Arthur (wk), Ashraf, Mayers and Blain

Gerard Brophy XI (bowling first): Sayers, Nurse, Brophy (c,wk), Hodgson, Rafiq, Wiggins, Greene, Sidebottom, Randhawa, Hannon-Dalby, Lee.

My thanks to Suzanne for the full scorecard and our thanks to Banks CC for their hospitality