White and Gough show

Cricket: Yorkshire 576-8 dec & 205-7 dec Glamorgan 482-7 dec & 216 (Yorkshire win by 43 runs)

After piling up 741 runs and declaring twice, Yorkshire glimpsed an extraordinary defeat on this glorious evening. A considerable Bank Holiday crowd, still beaming after Yorkshire's Sunday defeat cheered Glamorgan's dash to 113 without loss, in pursuit of 260, with 24 overs remaining.

Then two bursts by the England contenders Darren Gough and Craig White, watched by the selector David Graveney, pierced Glamorgan's soft underbelly and, with nine balls remaining, Yorkshire eased home. Glamorgan lost their last seven wickets in 45 balls.

Even at the start of the last 16 overs, Glamorgan, with eight wickets standing, were favour- ites to make the remaining 116, but the top three in the order all made haste unnecessarily. Brave hitting by Matthew Maynard and Tony Cottey maintained the rate and with 58 needed off the last 54 balls the sheen stayed on the daffodil.

David Byas then replaced Richard Stemp with Gough at the Cathedral Road End and his first ball had Maynard leg-before; Tony Cottey was run out off the next ball and Robert Croft bowled with the third. Gary Butcher was caught in the deep in the next over before White, mixing short-pitching and yorkers cleverly, shot through the tail.

Such mayhem might have been expected in the morning. After Yorkshire had stumbled to 32 for 4 on Saturday evening, undermined by three lbw decisions, the natural assumption was that this pitch was at last starting to wear. The nightwatchman, Alex Wharf, has few pretensions to batting at this level and therefore few misgivings; he took seven off Watkin's first two balls and thereafter batted with almost aristocratic disdain to record a career-best 62.

Michael Bevan, after a few mistimings while he tested his balance on his strained left ankle, settled with him to take 133 off 37 overs, and although Yorkshire lost three wickets in four overs after lunch, Byas was able to mull over another declaration. Bevan finished with 77.

Wharf, a 6ft 5in 21-year-old from Buttershaw, Bradford, scored 46 on his debut against Warwickshire in 1994 but was injured most of last summer. He is proving difficult to dislodge, even if his captain felt it unwise to bowl him during the carnage.

If Glamorgan did fail to win an exhilarating victory, they could claim one winner: Len Smith's immaculate Sophia Gardens pitch is perhaps the venue for the next timeless Test.