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Steve Patterson claimed his 400th first-class career wicket as he helped Yorkshire wrap up a superb innings and 73-run victory over title-chasing Somerset at Emerald Headingley before lunch on day four.
The seam bowling captain, 35, claimed three of four wickets inside the first hour of play as Somerset, made to follow-on 324 behind in reply to 520 on day three slipped from 159-4 to 211-8 in their second innings.
They were later bowled out for 251 with 15 minutes to go before lunch, with Patterson finishing with 4-54 from 20.5 overs.
It means that Somerset are almost certain to end the day in second place in the Specsavers County Championship table having lost for the second time in 10 games.
Essex are closing in on victory over Warwickshire at Chelmsford and would leapfrog them to go four points clear.
Yorkshire’s slim hopes of pipping both counties to the Division One crown remain alive after a fourth win from 10. They are likely to be 38 points behind Essex in third place.
Patterson bowled Tom Banton with just his third ball of the day to bring up wicket number 400 in a career which started with a first-class debut in 2005.
Yorkshire’s star in this match, however, was South African Test spinner Keshav Maharaj with a first-innings 72 and match figures of 10 for 127 from 60.3 overs, including a superb 7-52 in the first innings.
With the bat, he backed up centurions Gary Ballance, Tom Kohler-Cadmore and Harry Brook and took his tally of wickets to 20 in three games for the county.
The left-armer is likely to extend his deal into next month and hopefully beyond when the Championship resumes after the break for the T20 Blast.
New ball seamer Matthew Fisher made the initial breakthrough in the second over of the day when nightwatchman Tim Groenewald picked out Will Fraine at point, leaving the score at 167-5 in the 59th.
Patterson then bowled Banton through the gate for 63 with a nip backer, his third ball of the morning – 188-6 in the 67th. In his next over, he bowled Dom Bess, who will rejoin Yorkshire on loan for T20 tomorrow.
Then shortly before the clock ticked over to midday, Steve Davies tamely chipped Patterson to Duanne Olivier, who took a low catch at mid-off. By that stage, Somerset were on the ropes at 211-8 in the 73rd.
Craig Overton hoisted 29-year-old Maharaj for two straight sixes, only to lose his twin brother Jamie lbw to the same bowler, who claimed his 10th wicket in the match as Somerset slipped to 239-9 in the 80th over.
Patterson and Maharaj then took the new ball and the former wrapped up the win in the 83rd over by trapping Craig Overton lbw.
With the Vitality Blast starting later this week, there is a break for Championship cricket. The next round of fixtures starts on August 18, and Yorkshire host Nottinghamshire at Scarborough
What they said…
Yorkshire captain Steve Patterson
“I’m incredibly proud of all the lads. After losing at Essex last week, which was disappointing, I said afterwards, ‘If we’re going to drive games of cricket and put ourselves in positions to win, we have to score more runs’. We knew we had to have our top six or seven making big contributions.
“For three of them to get hundreds in this game, it’s pretty emphatic.
“We’ve been working hard all summer to put things in place, and this game in a sense was the perfect game against a very good Somerset side who are top of the league.
“To go and get 520 after being put in against one of the best bowling attacks in the league, I think it’s testament to how hard the lads have worked on their batting.
“With the ball, we knew it was going to be tough work. It’s a decent pitch. But the way Keshav bowled, with other lads playing their part, he just showed his quality. To bowl with that amount of control and be that attacking, his 10 wickets made the difference.”
On his 400th, Patterson said: “To be honest, at five wickets down and I’d not made a contribution, I wasn’t really thinking about it. I was more thinking, ‘As captain, I’ve contributed very little in this game’. To get a couple towards the end and play a part was pleasing.”
Somerset captain Tom Abell
“We were comprehensively outplayed in all three facets of the game by a good Yorkshire side.
“We weren’t good enough from day one, and we paid the price for that.
“We didn’t start as well as we’d have liked, and I thought they played well up top as well. They got a big first-innings score, and from that point on as a batting unit we’re always under pressure.
“We weren’t up to it in this game with the bat. We struggled to establish those partnerships – when we lost one wicket, we lost a cluster. You can’t afford to do that.
“We were better in the second innings, but still not good enough.
“We’re striving for those big scores, but we’re not quite achieving them at the minute.
“We had reasons for wanting to bowl on the first morning. We felt that if we could get a couple of inroads, we could put them under a lot of pressure. Hindsight’s a beautiful thing.
“Whatever you do first, you have to do it well, and we weren’t at our best on that first morning.
“I don’t think there’s too many positives we can take away from this game.
“The reality is we’ve had a fantastic campaign up until now, and there’s still a huge amount to play for. It’s a blip. We lost at Essex and bounced back really well from that result. We’ll be looking to do the same again.”
