Spare a thought for Steve Patterson. He might need counselling. The final day of what proved to be a remarkable match was only in its third over when Toby Roland-Jones mistimed a pull shot against Tim Bresnan. It flew from the top edge towards the pavilion where Patterson, with no obvious confidence, set himself, stuttered, tensed up, and put the chance to the deck.
Roland-Jones had 18 runs at the time, and went on to make a violent unbeaten 79, from 51 balls, sharing in a ninth-wicket stand of 123 with Tim Murtagh that put Middlesex on the road to a victory that lifts them up the Championship table to the very top, a point clear of Warwickshire and Lancashire.
It was the second successive match against Yorkshire that Middlesex have won against the head, after their resounding win at Lord’s last year. At the start of play, with Middlesex 64 ahead, there was the sniff of a chance for them to squeeze a win, but with eight wickets down, it would require some robust lower-order play to give them time, and a significant quantity of runs to give leeway.
When Patterson dropped his catch it left the door fractionally ajar, Roland-Jones and Murtagh kicked it open. In the end it was Murtagh who finished things off, with 15 overs of the match remaining when Jack Brooks was caught at first slip. It is the first championship match Yorkshire have lost by an innings at Scarborough.
The first 35 minutes play became a riot during which 107 runs were added in a shade under 10 overs. Sixes rained down on the Pavilion end and on to the terraces on the North Marine Road side of the ground, the shortest boundary. At one stage there were six of them in seven balls, five on the trot, from Azeem Rafiq’s off-spin and Brooks’s pace. By the time Murtagh (47) and Steven Finn were out to successive balls from Adam Lyth, a bowler of last resort, Middlesex had reached 577, a lead of 171, and had plenty of overs to get the job done.
The pitch, as it had played, had seemed passive enough for Yorkshire to be able to see out time. But the Middlesex bowlers, buoyed by the opportunity they had been given, found life in a wearing surface that had eluded those of the home side. The bowlers were all excellent, and the catching flawless. Before lunch Roland-Jones and Ollie Rayner had a wicket apiece, and after the interval Rayner removed Alex Lees before Finn tore down the hill to get rid of Gary Ballance. By tea Yorkshire were clinging on by a hair.
It was Murtagh, with three for 44, who cleaned up, removing an obdurate Bresnan with one that kept low, and Andy Hodd with another that did the opposite. Roland-Jones, three for 34, then had Patterson caught at second slip and, after seven overs of hammering away at the last pair, Murtagh, to his undiluted joy, finished things off.
