Sidebottom Strikes!

By Gary Watton
July 6 2015

In spite of the very best efforts of the Birmingham rain, as well as some decent last-day resistance from Sam Hain, the English champions steamrollered their way to yet another convincing triumph. The Tykes are clearly on a mid-summer roll in the four-day game. Their success this time was due in no small part to the contributions of two gents who are probably playing better cricket now than when they were originally selected to play for England. 

Alas for Ryan Sidebottom, his time in test cricket has come and gone. This is Yorkshire's gain. Now that he has recovered from his spring injury, he has manged to spring back into his customary high quality swing bowling. On the Monday, Ryan savagely tore through the home batting order. At one stage, the hosts lost five wickets, without scoring a single run, in thirty remarkable deliveries. Proving that his stint was no flash in the pan, the veteran proceeded to inflict more havoc upon a more resolute Warwickshire in the second innings. Ironically, although Warwickshire remain one of the most formidable teams in English county cricket, this is the third consecutive year that the white rose has meted out a fearful hammering of their illustrious opponents.

Meanwhile, the son of another Yorkshire legend, Jonny Bairstow, produced a superb century on the opening day when all around him were losing their heads. His 108 out of a total of 213 was priceless in the extreme. Were it not for the fine form of Jos Buttler, Jonny would be keeping wicket for England. However, his current form is of such headline-grabbing proportions that he may well have shunted himself to the front of the next batsman off the ramp.

Now the runaway leaders must rejoin battle in the Twenty20 competition and hope that their outstanding form in four-day cricket might translate over into the limited-overs version where the Vikings have indeed been rather limited thus far. 

Warwickshire versus YORKSHIRE; at Birmingham; Sunday the 5th to Wednesday the 8th of July 2015. YORKSHIRE won the toss.

YORKSHIRE first innings: 213 (Bairstow 108; Wright 5-40)

Warwickshire first innings: 69 (Sidebottom 6-34, Brooks 3-13)

YORKSHIRE second innings: 289 for seven declared (Rhodes 79, Finch 73*; Hannon-Dalby 3-80)

Warwickshire second innings: 259 (Hain 106; Sidebottom 5-42)

YORKSHIRE win by 174 runs. Warwickshire three points, YORKSHIRE twenty points.

Lees - Scores of eighteen and 28 appear to be par for the course for young Lees nowadays. He keeps making a start, but failing to develop a much bigger innings.

Rhodes - Will atoned for his first innings of ten with his first and long-overdue half century in first-class county cricket. Can he kick on from this encouraging knock?

Leaning - Jack missed out in the first innings, with a puny four, but his second-innings forty-six was a decent effort, punctuated by a number of rain intervals.

Gale - 'Galey lad' was consistently dreadful, with scores of one in each innings. Aside from the occasional big innings, he remains one of the weak links in the team.

Bairstow - 108 off 139 balls was a dazzling effort, in the context of a low-scoring match. A rapid 23 off twenty balls in the second innings was also commendable.

Finch - 101 runs in the match was a good return. Aaron was in his element in the second innings, as he was promoted to accelerate the score, which he duly did.

Bresnan - Big Bresnan was under-bowled in the match, which was small wonder, given the success of others. He only made eleven runs from his two innings.

Middlebrook - He missed out with the bat, managing only seven runs, but on the final day he took the crucial wicket of Clarke, conceding only 34 from 15 overs.

Patterson - SP took two wickets, costing 36 runs. He only had to bowl thirteen deliveries in the first innings during which he ended the brief resistance of Clarke.

Brooks - Jack cashed in with five wickets for a cost of eighty-six runs. His first-innings effort produced figures of three for thirteen from eleven accurate overs.

Sidebottom - Eleven wickets at a cost of seventy-six runs will do wonders for his bowling average. He's still arguably the best new ball bowler on the county circuit.

CURRENT DIVISION ONE STANDINGS:

YORKSHIRE - played nine matches; 165 points

Middlesex - played ten matches; 141 points

Durham - played nine matches; 134 points

Warwickshire - played nine matches; 114 points

Somerset - played nine matches; 108 points

Nottinghamshire - played ten matches; 103 points

Sussex - played ten matches; 102 points

Worcestershire - played nine matches; 79 points

Hampshire - played nine matches; 74 points

AVERAGES:

Bairstow - 95.88; 767 runs; highest score - 219 not out; four centuries and three fifties

Bresnan - 64; 512 runs; highest score - 169 not out; two centuries and two fifties

Leaning - 61.25; 735 runs; highest score - 123; three centuries and two fifties

Finch - 55.5; 111 runs; highest score - 77 not out; one fifty

Pujara - 52.8; 264 runs; highest score - 133 not out; one century and one fifty

BEST BOWLERS (minimum requirement - ten wickets):

Sidebottom - 15.76; 21 wickets; best bowling: 6-34

Middlebrook - 20.91; eleven wickets; best bowling: 5-82

Brooks - 21.81; forty-three wickets; best bowling: 5-44

Patterson - 22.17; thirty wickets; best bowling: 5-11

Rashid - 23.93; fifteen wickets; best bowling: 4-48

Bresnan - 31.58; 26 wickets; best bowling: 5-85