Yorkshire’s hopes of winning the LV= Insurance County Championship title were ended as Warwickshire secured a fourth day victory at Emerald Headingley courtesy of a clinical bowling and fielding display.
Chasing 224, Yorkshire resumed on 50-3, lost Gary Ballance for 21 to the day’s third ball and were later bowled out for 117 15 minutes before lunch.
England’s Chris Woakes finished with three wickets and was matched by fellow seamers Liam Norwell and Craig Miles. Tim Bresnan also claimed six catches in the second innings, all at first slip.
Woakes removed Ballance and Harry Brook inside the day’s opening half hour, leaving the score at 69-5. From there, things went downhill pretty quickly for the White Rose, who lost by 106 runs.
Yorkshire can still qualify for the Bob Willis Trophy final at Lord’s by finishing in the top two places in Division One.
Only 6.5 points now separate the top four teams in the table heading into the final week of the Championship, starting on Tuesday.
Hampshire are top on 58.5 points followed by Warwickshire 55, Lancashire 54.5 and Nottinghamshire 52. Then come Yorkshire 41.5 and Somerset 26.5.
Yorkshire travel to Trent Bridge to face Notts, while Lancashire host Hampshire at Liverpool and Warwickshire face Somerset at Edgbaston.
Bresnan is now only one of three Warwickshire players to have taken six or more catches in a first-class innings.
Rikki Clarke’s seven against Lancashire at Liverpool in 2011 equals the world-record, while MJK Smith claimed six in a match against Leicestershire in 1962.
The departures of Ballance and Brook to Woakes were clearly hammer blows to Yorkshire.
Ballance (21) edged to Sam Hain at second slip with the day’s third ball – 50-4 – before a Brook edge on nine gave Bresnan his fourth catch at first slip.
Bresnan and Miles both struck in their second overs of the morning, the 38th and 41st, as Yorkshire slipped to the brink at 95-7.
Bresnan had Dom Bess lbw before Miles had Harry Duke caught and bowled diving forwards.
Bresnan’s fifth catch of the innings then came when Jordan Thompson (18) edged Norwell to slip five overs later – 105-8.
Captain Steve Patterson, batting with a hamstring injury, flashed at Miles – 114-9 in the 49th – and handed Bresnan another catch before the end came in the next over when Ben Coad chipped Norwell to mid-on.
This is only Yorkshire’s second defeat of the season and second in the last 19 first-class matches dating back to the end of the 2019 summer.
