Picture by Stephen Pond/Getty Images. Steven Patterson in action for Yorkshire at Chelmsford in 2018.
“It was a bizarre game,” chuckled Steve Patterson.
From that comment alone, without us writing another word, there’s a fair chance you’ll be able to guess which Yorkshire v Essex game we’re talking about.
Yes, correct, Chelmsford, May 2018. Yorkshire were bowled out for 50 in their first innings and went on to win by 91 runs.
For previous bygone pieces this summer, we have matched games at home and away in exact correlation to Yorkshire’s upcoming fixture.
Here, though, while the two counties meet at Headingley, starting tomorrow, looking back on a quite incredible away game with a man at the heart of the win thanks to six second-innings wickets was just too good an opportunity to miss.
“It was my first game back because I’d broken my finger in pre-season,” recalls Patterson, recently elected as a non-executive director onto Yorkshire’s board.
“We had been netting at Headingley, atrocious weather, lights were on, it was about 4pm, it was drizzling but we stayed out there. And one of the Academy lads bowled one at me which shot off a length and broke my finger.
“When I came into that game, I felt as rusty as hell.
Picture by Stephen Pond/Getty Images. Essex’s Sam Cook claimed five wickets during the first morning at Chelmsford in May 2018.
“Anyway, we elected to bat in that game didn’t we.
“As I say, it was bizarre, because we had Rooty playing, Brooky, Jonny and Gary Ballance. Pujara as well. In county cricket, that’s as strong a batting line-up as you’re going to get.”
Only captain Ballance with 22 made double figures in an innings which saw four ducks recorded, including Root for a golden, and Sam Cook and Peter Siddle share nine wickets. Cook claimed five.
Yorkshire, having been skittled inside 19 overs, then responded by bowling Essex out for 142 inside 44. Both first innings were done by tea-time in front of watching Anthony McGrath, who was in his first season as Essex’s head coach.
“There was so much going on on that first day,” continued Patterson. “It’s a stinker when you’re bowled out for 50 first up because it’s then hard to approach it with the ball.
“You’re like, ‘Well, if we don’t bowl them out cheaply ourselves, we’re going to lose’. But you can’t go searching for it because there was enough in the pitch.
“I remember getting Ravi Bopara out as my only wicket in the first innings, and Coady, Jack Brooks and Tim Bresnan all took three.
“I remember thinking that when you bowl them out for 140, it’s still a long way behind on a pitch that’s doing a bit. But we knew it was going to get better because I think the forecast was decent weather for the couple of days afterwards.
Picture by Stephen Pond/Getty Images. Joe Root heads back to the dressing room having been dismissed during the first morning.
“And it wasn’t as bad a pitch, probably, as we made it out to look in that first innings.
“Them getting bowled out for 140 was probably a reflection of how cheaply we were bowled out if that makes sense. They probably thought there was more in it than there was.
“They should have easily got 240 or 250, and we’d have been dead and buried.”
But the second innings was when things really started to turn Yorkshire’s way, with them closing day one on 161-2, a lead of 69.
“I can’t remember whose idea it was, but Jonny then opened the batting instead of Brooky, who had done it in the first innings. He got a quick fifty and just put the pressure back on them a little bit.
“It was almost a pinch-hitter’s role.
“Brooky then came in at three and got 120-odd. In their own ways, they were two brilliant innings.”
To be precise, Jonny Bairstow made 50 off 44 balls and Harry Brook 124 off 167, his maiden first-class century. What a time to do it, hey!
Picture by Clint Hughes/Getty Images. Jonny Bairstow scored a crucial half-century opening the batting in Yorkshire’s second innings, late on day one.
“Jonny was the one who got us back on a level-pegging,” said Patterson. “And then Brooky was the one who got us ahead of it.
“The one thing which impressed me the most was that when you go down to Essex, Simon Harmer is always a real handful. He was then and will be now. But Brooky took him down. He’d come down the pitch and hit him back over his head.
“He must have only been 18 or 19 at the time, but it showed a lot of character.”
Yorkshire ended up bowled out for 329 deep into day two, setting Essex 238 to win. They ended the day in a spot of bother at 97-4.
“That innings didn’t guarantee us anything because the pitch was getting flatter and flatter,” said Patterson. “But it did give us a chance.”
Patterson got each of the first four wickets en-route to 6-40 from 18 overs, including England Test captain Alastair Cook bowled with a beauty.
“That spell I bowled before close was one of those where everything went my way,” he said.
“Coming back in the morning, we were on top, and it was a hell of a turnaround.”
Picture by Allan McKenzie/SWPix.com. A maiden first-class hundred in the second innings for Harry Brook.
Essex ended up being bowled out for 146 before lunch on day three.
“We got that momentum late on day one and ran with it,” said Patterson.
Asked what the dressing room was like having been bowled out for 50, Patterson described it as “shell-shocked”.
“We were a largely experienced team, but it was just one of those things,” he said. “They happen every now and again.
“But there aren’t many teams who get bowled out for 50 and win!”
