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Harris hundred headlines day one

14 April 2022

No doubt intent upon making a good first impression, Marcus Harris announced himself in fine style as Gloucestershire flattered to deceive on the opening day of the LV=Insurance County Championship First Division match against Yorkshire at Seat Unique Stadium in Bristol.

Arriving just too late to feature in last week's curtain-raiser against Northamptonshire, the 29-year-old Australia Test batter made up for lost time, raising an enormously impressive hundred on debut after Gloucestershire were inserted on a seaming green-top. 

But Yorkshire enjoyed the upper hand, dismissing their hosts for 227 in 78.1 overs.

England paceman Matty Fisher played a starring role, claiming 4-19 from 14.1 overs, while Pakistani all-rounder Haris Rauf, although wayward at times, weighed in with 3-81.

Required to face 15 overs in the early-evening gloom, Yorkshire reached the close on 37 without loss, Adam Lyth (24 not out) and George Hill (3 not out) joining forces to reduce the arrears to 190.

But even the exemplary Fisher was upstaged by Gloucestershire's new overseas hired hand, Harris top-scoring with 136 from 231 balls and dominating stands of 50 with Ben Charlesworth, 41 with Graeme van Buuren and 53 with Miles Hammond for the first, third and fourth wickets respectively.

Forced to shoulder the burden of increased expectation in the absence of Gloucestershire batting mainstay Chris Dent, ruled out by Covid on the eve of the match, the Western Australian did not disappoint.

Picking up where he left off last season at Leicestershire, for whom he averaged 54.58 across eight innings. Negotiating his first competitive knock since featuring for Victoria against Queensland in Melbourne in mid-February, Harris might well have been suffering from ring rust when following a slanting delivery from Haris Rauf and offering a chance on 18. Fortunately for him, Harry Duke applied gloves to ball, but was unable to hold onto what amounted to a presentable chance.

He again erred on 81, giving Dom Bess the charge and diverting an inside edge inches wide of his stumps. Otherwise, Harris demonstrated sound judgment in terms of knowing which deliveries to leave alone, compiling runs in a neat, almost unobtrusive fashion before accelerating and playing with more freedom as conditions warmed up in the afternoon. He went to three figures from 200 balls and accrued a six and 22 fours, the majority of them harvested in the arc between cover and third man.

As well as their overseas player acquitted himself, Gloucestershire's prospects of posting a truly competitive first-innings score on a pitch expected to flatten out as the contest develops, were undermined by the failure of any of their recognised batters to stay with Harris long enough to stage a truly meaningful partnership. In fact, his team-mates managed just 82 runs between them.

Charlesworth at least displayed adhesive qualities in scratching 15 from 72 balls until groping at a delivery outside off stump and being caught at the wicket off Fisher, who then had James Bracey held by Adam Lyth at second slip to effect a double breakthrough shortly before lunch. Steve Patterson then removed van Buuren for 21, Gloucestershire's captain presenting Lyth with a chest-high catch in the act of playing a forcing shot, while Miles Hammond succumbed to temptation once too often, pulling Fisher and holing out to deep fine leg having scored 20.

Harris was in danger of running out of partners as the hosts subsided in the final session, lurching from 155-4 to 183-8. Dropped behind twice earlier in the same over, Ryan Higgins pulled a slower ball from Rauf to short mid-wicket and departed for seven. Tom Lace was pinned lbw by the Pakistani international's next ball and Zafar Gohar took a wild swing at Bess and was comprehensively stumped. When Matt Taylor edged Rauf to third slip, Gloucestershire's hopes of attaining even a solitary batting point appeared in doubt.

Demonstrating typical Yorkshire grit to frustrate his home county, Wakefield-born Josh Shaw hung around long enough for Harris to at least keep Gloucestershire in the game. Respectability had been attained by the time the Australian perished to a top-edged pull, held by Duke off the bowling of Patterson. Fisher then finished things off, having Ajeet Dale held in the gully.

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