Yorkshire captain Steve Patterson believes his side are firmly in the hunt at the halfway point of their County Championship clash with Warwickshire, but insists they are not yet ahead of the game.
Warwickshire closed on 192-5, replying to Yorkshire’s first-innings 259.
But they slipped from 139-1 to 166-5 after tea to give the hosts significant hope, with Patterson claiming three of them in a superb burst.
The skipper had earlier completed an excellent 60 with the bat at the back end of Yorkshire’s first innings.
“I wouldn’t call it honours even at the moment,” he said.
“I still think we’re slightly behind. But we have a new ball in five overs tomorrow. If we bowl well with that, probably better than we did with the first new ball, there’s a good chance we can keep them to a similar score to ours. Batting last on this surface could be tricky.
“But we’ve got to come back in the morning and get it right.
“We let them get away early on, and it took us a while to claw it back to where we’re at now. We tend to do that. We get behind and claw it back. At the moment, we’re not too disappointed with where we’re at.
“This morning, with the sun out, it felt easier for batting.
“Then they put the heavy roller on, which I think makes a difference – just enough to take a bit of pace out of the surface and some of the sideways movement out of it.”
Patterson completed his fourth first-class fifty with the bat, an innings started late on day one.
“I enjoyed it out there,” he said. “At 101-6, it’s a bit precarious, and you need to scrape something together. But as the ball got older, it got easier.
“It’s just frustrating that there weren’t any more senior batters in because we could have got a really competitive score. But we did enough to keep us in the game.”
Patterson may have claimed three of the four evening wickets, but fledgling left-arm spinner James Logan – playing only his second game – did an excellent job in restricting the Warwickshire run-rate, ensuring Dom Sibley (67) and Rob Yates (49) didn’t get away during a second-wicket stand of 101.
Logan finished with 0-19 from eight overs, all bowled during the afternoon.
“James did a lovely job,” added Patterson.
“There wasn’t a huge amount in the surface for him, but part of his job – and challenge – in the first innings is to bowl with control, and I thought he did that extremely well against some good players.
“We’re really pleased with him, especially having broken his thumb on the pre-season tour and been out for a long period of time. He’s not played a lot of cricket since he’s come back.”
