Ryan Sidebottom rolled back the years to push champions Yorkshire to the threshold of another victory at Edgbaston.
Sidebottom, the veteran left-armer, was the chief architect of Warwickshire’s incredible implosion to 37-9 on the second morning. The 37-year-old claimed the first six wickets of the innings as the home batsmen were left to rue some injudicious choices on which deliveries to play and which to leave.
It took a counter-punch from Rikki Clarke to nudge Warwickshire beyond the paltry follow-on target of 64, his late boundaries manipulating Sidebottom’s figures to six for 34, which were nevertheless the best since he claimed six for 30 in the title-clinching victory over Nottinghamshire last September.
The sequence of scalps by Sidebottom, in only his third match back since recovering from a calf injury incurred in the opening round win over Worcestershire, was eventually broken by his new-ball partner Jack Brooks as the hosts lost five wickets with the score on 35. Brooks, Yorkshire’s leading wicket taker, took three for 14 to boost his top-flight tally for 2015 to 41 victims.
Current leaders Yorkshire, who crushed Nottinghamshire and Durham by innings margins in their most recent Division One contests and recorded similar-sized victories in both fixtures against Warwickshire last summer, closed the second day with a 269-run advantage.
Middlesex, their nearest challengers, were thankful to Dawid Malan’s career-best, unbeaten 182 against Nottinghamshire. It helped James Franklin’s team post an impressive 374 after being asked to bat first.
In reply, Brendan Taylor, the former Zimbabwe captain recruited on a three-year Kolpak deal this summer, became only the fourth player to reach 700 Division One runs with an attractive 77 in challenging conditions. With play taking place courtesy of the use of the floodlights, Taylor was one of three wickets for Franklin, while Alex Hales became James Harris’ 50th County Championship scalp of the season when he chopped on attempting a cut. Earlier in the day, Sussex’s Luke Wright became the third to the 700 mark when he registered his first run of the second day at Taunton, where Somerset hold the advantage at the mid-point of the contest. Once again, James Hildreth, the most prolific batsman in the division, struck a half-century as the hosts closed 32 runs in arrears with six second-innings wickets intact.
At New Road, Worcestershire captain Daryl Mitchell hit an unbeaten 105 in the relegation duel with Hampshire to help his team recover from the loss of three new-ball wickets to the Australian Test bowler Jackson Bird.
Meanwhile, England World Cup player Chris Woakes made his comeback for Nottinghamshire’s second XI against their Worcestershire counterparts at Lady Bay, a stone’s throw from Trent Bridge, after being farmed out by Warwickshire as part of his rehabilitation from a knee injury.
The 26-year-old Woakes was scheduled to play for Warwickshire in their own Second XI Championship fixture against MCC Universities in Oxford. But fire damage to the pavilion at the Parks, from a suspected arson attack over the weekend, caused its abandonment and led to the ECB commissioning a temporary switch across the Midlands.
