Somerset have certainly done all they can to keep themselves in the hunt for a maiden County Championship title but now they and Yorkshire, uncharacteristically off colour in all departments here this week, shift their attentions across the Pennines to see if Lancashire can do them a favour against the league leaders, Middlesex.
This 10-wicket win inside three days was a very impressive performance from Chris Rogers and his merry men, who are now one point behind Yorkshire, the defending champions, before their final game with Nottinghamshire, already relegated, at Taunton. Somerset were exceptional with ball and bat, always finding that bit of something extra when it was needed.
In bowling Yorkshire out for 286 after tea to leave a target of 42 to win, the left-arm spinner Jack Leach starred with six for 64 from 24.3 overs to show the kind of form which might just interest the England selectors before their sub-continental winter.
Yorkshire will head into the match with Middlesex at Lord’s next week 20, nine or four points behind and they are likely to have to win that game to claim a third successive Division One title and a 20-point gap will almost certainly be too much for them to bridge.
“That was a great result and I’m very proud of the boys,” Leach said. “I’ve been here three times before and it’s always been tough.
“We’ve usually got played off the park, so it’s nice to get the win. It now depends on the other result at Old Trafford but we just wanted to win our last two games and see where that puts us.
“We’ll be travelling back home whilst that game is finishing and I would think there will be a few sore heads amongthe lads. But we’ll have one eye on it. You can’t control those things. We can only control how we play against Notts next week.”
Yorkshire went into day three trailing by 188 with seven second-innings wickets in hand. Not even the Australian Jake Lehmann’s first Championship century, in his eighth and last innings for them, could save Yorkshire from defeat.
That means Jason Gillespie, who said his goodbyes to a number of the club’s members and supporters shortly after the finish, has suffered only two Championship defeats at Headingley during his five years in charge. The other came against Sussex in the opening match of the 2013 campaign.
In all, Yorkshire have suffered only six defeats in 79 Championship matches during his reign. Ironically three of those have come against Middlesex, including that at Scarborough this season.
The outgoing coach, who is remaining positive as ever, also revealed mixed team news for next week’s final round, with Lehmann the subject of a last‑minute request from South Australia for him to return home and prepare for their domestic season, starting next month.
However, Steve Patterson will return to the squad. Patterson was ruled out of this game due to a serious illness to his father, and he was expected to miss the rest of the season. But an improvement in his personal circumstances means the metronomic seamer, who has been badly missed, will be back in contention.
This was actually Yorkshire’s best day of the contest as they fought hard to wipe away their deficit, with the left-handed Lehmann sharing an eighth-wicket partnership of 101 inside 30 overs with Liam Plunkett, who made 73 with a couple of big sixes over long-on off Leach.
However, Somerset kept the hosts at bay thanks to their buoyant left-arm spinner, who took the final six wickets, including Lehmann lbw sweeping and Plunkett caught flashing hard to slip, to boost his tally this season to 58 wickets at 22.6. He has now taken five wickets or more in an innings in each of his past four matches.
“I’ve had a good season and it’s nice to take wickets away from Taunton as well,” he added.
“It’s nice to bowl on at home but to be taking wickets away is obviously great. I’m really pleased to be able to help the boys out.”
The Somerset openers, Marcus Trescothick and Tom Abell, then confidently chased down the target in the sunshine to secure a fourth win in their past six matches.
Gillespie, whose side have lost on each of their past two visits to Lord’s, said: “I think there’s a really good chance we can win next week.
“All we can do is go down there and prepare really well and play the best cricket we can play. We need to be aggressive and positive and hopefully that will get us over the line.”
