Ryan Sidebottom

By Gary Watton
August 23 2013

In spite of a duck egg in his batting effort, Ryan Sidebottom made a triumphant return to his old hunting-ground of Trent Bridge as table-topping Yorkshire avenged their recent Twenty20 humiliations at the hands of Nottinghamshire. With only four matches remaining, the white rose are drawing tantalisingly close to another historic County Championship success.

Funnily enough, Yorkshire's latest win was far from certain on day one. First of all, the hosts won the toss and they succeeded in nibbling away at Yorkshire's batting order, denying any of the visitors a century. However, the Championship leaders rallied well with Rashid returning to form with the bat to engineer a recovery after our latest import Kane Williamson was dismissed first ball. However, what really turned the proceedings on their head was a fine ninth wicket partnership between the returning Jonny Bairstow and the plucky Steven Patterson. After having been in danger of falling below a three hundred amount, the white rose eventually exceeded a total of four hundred on the second morning. Earlier in the innings, the hot and cold Adam Lyth blew hot with a commendable 95.

Perhaps buoyed by their late order revival, the Yorkshire bowlers promptly tore into a surprisingly fragile Nottinghamshire batting line-up, and were it not for another defiant ninth wicket stand, the home team would not have reached three figures. In the event, Nottinghamshire batted for only a dismal 35 overs and fell a long way short of Yorkshire's first-innings product.

Not surprisingly, Andrew Gale invited the hosts to bat again, having seen his bowlers make exceptionally light work of the opposition batting. Yet again, the pattern was repeated as the Nottinghamshire batsmen proceeded to smash quick runs but even more alarmingly lose wickets at regular intervals. Ultimately, the hosts only just avoided the embarrassment of an innings defeat, but it took Adam Lyth the small matter of five balls to belt the twelve runs needed to achieve victory, with a full day and a half to spare.

Only Ryan Sidebottom (with an impressive haul of seven wickets in the match) and Adil Rashid, who produced match figures of four for twenty-two, were economical in both innings. The same could not be said for the dreadfully erratic Brooks and Plunkett who each incurred the wrath of a scorned Nottinghamshire batting line-up. Liam Plunkett's match figures make for dismal reading, but he and Jack Brooks did at least chip in with two second-innings wickets each. The other piece in Yorkshire's bowling jigsaw was the ever-reliable Steven Patterson who helped himself to five first-innings wickets.

Kane Williamson may have missed out in this match, but he is well capable of proving to be a good understudy for the absent Gary Ballance. Well, Yorkshire may be only two wins away from County Championship glory, a feat that is all the more remarkable as it has been delivered without Tim Bresnan and Joe Root.

Nottinghamshire versus YORKSHIRE; at Trent Bridge; 21-23 August 2013; Nottinghamshire won the toss.

YORKSHIRE first innings: 407 (Lyth 95, Rashid 78, Bairstow 62; Fletcher 5-93, Gurney 3-71)

Nottinghamshire first innings: 150 (Patterson 5-43, Sidebottom 4-35)

Nottinghamshire second innings: 266 (Read 58; Rashid 3-22, Sidebottom 3-38)

YORKSHIRE second innings: 12 for 0

YORKSHIRE win by ten wickets.