McGrath defends opener Rudolph (From Bradford Telegraph and Argus)

McGrath defends opener Rudolph

5:03pm Monday 10th August 2009

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Blogging and tweeting seems to be all the rage in sporting circles at the moment, with Australian opener Phil Hughes recently revealing that he had been dropped from the Test team on the social networking site Twitter.

England striker Darren Bent even used the same website to criticise Tottenham chairman Daniel Levy ahead of a proposed transfer to Sunderland.

Now Yorkshire captain Anthony McGrath has been at it, using a blog on the club's website to defend the decision to use Jacques Rudolph as an opener in County Championship cricket.

The White Rose county's opening partnership in four-day cricket has been a problem over recent years, with them fielding no fewer than nine different combinations last season.

But that problem seems to have been rectified this term after the prolific South African left-hander was teamed up with specialist opener Joe Sayers.

There has been a suggestion that Rudolph's promotion has meant that Yorkshire's middle order now lacks substance, but McGrath has argued otherwise.

He wrote: "There's been debate over Jacques Rudolph's position in the order, but he has scored more runs as opener at this stage of the season than he did from No 4 last summer at the same stage.

"Last summer, some people were calling for him to open the batting simply because we couldn't get an opening partnership, whereas this year that's been one of our strong points."

The stats clearly suggest that the captain and coach have been vindicated in their decision.

Rudolph has recorded 894 runs from ten LV Division One matches, notching three hundreds, while Sayers has scored 736 runs, including two tons.

McGrath continued: "Joe's the most natural opener, Jacques does the same job in South Africa, and he wanted the role at Yorkshire. Our current opening partnership has been one of our plus points this season."

McGrath, who has missed the last two Pro40 League defeats with an injured right thumb, today declared himself fit for tomorrow's County Championship match against Hampshire at Basingstoke.

Three days after it was revealed exclusively in the Telegraph & Argus, Andrew Gale has been confirmed in the England Lions side to face the Australians at Canterbury in a two-day match this weekend.

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