McGrath's grit revitalises England and continues Yorkshire legacy

Those legendary Yorkshire all-rounders of a hundred years ago, George Hirst and Wilfred Rhodes, who were the personification of true grit, would have been proud of Anthony McGrath. He came in when England were 7 for 2 with the ball moving all over the place and South Africa's opening bowlers cock-a-hoop.

It was a situation to test any batsman's nerves as well as his technique. A huge dollop of Yorkshire grit was probably the best antidote of all and McGrath supplied it in sackfuls. There was nothing glamorous about his batting, just masses of down-to-earth common sense. It was canny stuff.

He worked the ball around into the empty spaces for singles and he played a couple of withering square cuts off Andrew Hall. Hall bowled two short and wide in succession. McGrath hit both to the backward point boundary.

When Nicky Boje came on to bowl his left-arm spin, he swept firmly and well choosing the right line and length every time. However, Hirst and Rhodes would have had something sharpish to say to him when he advanced to Boje and, in trying to drive him over mid-off, skied the ball just over cover's head when it turned and he did not get to the pitch. After all, in the Roses match of their day it was considered unnecessarily frivolous to hit a boundary before lunch on the first day.

This was the only serious indiscretion McGrath committed and one could not help feeling that he relished these circumstances almost more than he would have done had he found himself batting on a shirtfront on a sunny day. Then, Yorkshire cussedness may not always be the supreme virtue.

McGrath reached his fifty in 93 balls and was out soon afterwards in a way that would have made Hirst and Rhodes' hair stand on end. Boje bowled one down the leg side that was called a wide and tried to turn it to leg and, for the second time in England's one-day matches this season, he was stumped, which is most un-Yorkshire-like behaviour even in a one-day game.

None the less this was an innings that showed the great value of McGrath to England. He is always likely to be a flexible member of the batting order. He was shrewdly placed at No 4; in different circumstances he might find himself a couple of places lower down. Without the Yorkshire captain, England may never have recovered from 7 for 2. As it was, he gave them at least a chance of victory.