Steven Patterson

By Gary Watton
May 19 2013

Suddenly that dismal opening reverse at home to Sussex seems like light years away, as a rampant Yorkshire achieve their third championship win from their last four outings. To do so inside three days by inflicting an innings defeat on Warwickshire, the reigning champions, in their own back garden of Edgbaston is simply staggering. A report (or extended bout of gloating) is located below.

The visiting captain Andrew Gale may not be in the greatest of form with the bat but he certainly is demonstrating his aptitude at correctly guessing the flipped coin at the outset of the proceedings. In the event, Gale's decision to bowl first was entirely vindicated by his impressive seam bowling attack, although even the away team could scarcely envisage that they would skittle out their celebrated hosts for a paltry 128. Warwickshire cannot really bemoan the enforced absence of Bell and Trott, as Yorkshire were denied the services of the equally useful Bairstow and Root. One other initial absentee was big Tim Bresnan who was relieved of his England duties and relieved to be admitted to the Yorkshire XI as a replacement for the unfortunate Pyrah. However, it was another former England seamer Liam Plunkett who stole the first-innings show with a commendable five-wicket haul, supplemented by a trio of wickets for the admirable Steven Patterson. 

Patterson would match his wickets treble in Warwickshire's equally woeful second innings alongside trebles for Bresnan and Ryan Sidebottom. Patterson receives my nomination as the pick of an outstanding quartet of Yorkshire seam bowlers who collectively terrorised the hapless home team, for whom a serious dressing down in the dressing room must be in order. Furthermore, to think that our bowling heroics were accomplished in the absence of Jack Brooks clearly illustrates that for the first time in a dozen years, the Tykes have a seam attack that will keep opposing batsmen awake at night. Not since the days of Gough, Hoggard, Hutchison, Silverwood, and White has Yorkshire boasted such a potent seam attack. This bodes well for the remainder of the season, after a decade of feeding off scraps from Deon Kruis and the fading force of Jason Gillespie. In fact, Yorkshire's bowling attack had got so bad that we had to recall Darren Gough, in the twilight of his career, from Essex.

However, one bowler who I have thus far omitted to mention was the one whose performance laid the foundations for this resounding success, namely Adil Rashid. Young Rashid's spin bowling input was surplus to requirements in Birmingham, but the all-rounder again revealed his worthiness as a number six batsman with his second successive championship century - and an unbeaten one to boot. Credit must also be allocated to Gary Ballance for another decent knock after our four top order batsmen failed to pile on the runs. Joe Sayers characteristically produced a marathon stint for 24 runs while Andrew Gale's pre-season preparations in Sri Lanka have yet to pay dividends.

Fortunately Adil Rashid is making a good case as a genuine would-be test all-rounder, and it was largely a combination of his runs and the harvest of cheap wickets for our seamers which created this emphatic, not to say astonishing, innings triumph which has launched the white rose to the second highest perch in the national chart. Yorkshire are now third favourites to win the county championship. Are the Tykes on an unstoppable roll, or could this merely be another false dawn? Time will tell. 

Warwickshire versus YORKSHIRE; at Edgbaston; 15th-17th May; YORKSHIRE won the toss.

Warwickshire first innings: 128 (Troughton 65*; Plunkett 5-32, Patterson 3-46)

YORKSHIRE first innings: 407 (Rashid 110*, Ballance 52; Patel 5-56, Rankin 3-75)

Warwickshire second innings: 140 (Patterson 3-19, Sidebottom 3-23, Bresnan 3-41)

YORKSHIRE WON BY AN INNINGS AND 139 RUNS; Warwickshire 2 points, YORKSHIRE 23 points