Strong Yorkshire earn thumping opening win

With six players in the Caribbean with England, captain Andrew Gale suspended and now Ryan Sidebottom facing an injury lay-off, the defending champions still had the resources to remind their newly-promoted opponents that one bad session can be fatal in Division One.

Having dismissed the home side for 100, Yorkshire were home and a dry by tea, a meagre target of 105 cleared off by Alex Lees, with his second half-century of the match, and Will Rhodes, unbeaten with 45 on his Championship debut.

Until the third morning at New Road, the match was as even as could be. When Tim Bresnan was last out for 83, Yorkshire trailed by a mere four runs on first innings but in less than two hours Worcestershire went to lunch in complete disarray.

With Bresnan and Jack Brooks at their throats, Worcestershire crumbled to 48 for six and subsequently folded for 100 after a career-best five for 11 by Steven Patterson.

The transformation illustrated the gulf that has opened between the two divisions and confirmed what Worcestershire intimated prior to beginning their fifth different spell in Division One since 2004.

Mitchell said his young team would face the strongest seam attack in the country and so it proved from the moment Richard Oliver misjudged Bresnan’s ninth delivery and paid the price when the ball ducked into his pads.

Then it was over to Brooks, leading wicket-taker for his county last year and already a fair bet to retain that crown.

A measure of his contribution is that all bar two of his wickets in a match return of nine for 84 were batsmen from Worcestershire’s top six, including a new-ball spell in the second innings which saw him dismiss Mitchell, Moeen Ali and Alex Gidman in the space of three overs.

Mitchell could do little about the brutish lifter he fended to first slip while Moeen and Gidman were beaten by movement away from the bat.

Having lost four wickets in 34 balls, Worcestershire survived for 14 overs through the efforts of Tom Fell and Tom Kohler-Cadmore before Patterson’s initial intervention.

Fell gave stand-in captain Lees, on his 22nd birthday, a second catch at first slip and Ben Cox was leg-before to the fourth ball he faced.

Brooks was back in the attack after lunch and for once luck was on his side when Kohler-Cadmore, top scorer with 24, pulled one of his looser deliveries straight to Patterson at mid-on.

If there was to be any way back, Worcestershire needed Gareth Andrew to embellish an already memorable return to the championship side.

After a half-century in the first innings and a five-wicket return when Bresnan edged to third slip, Andrew got to 16 before a loose shot opened the door for Patterson to mop up the last three wickets.

Yorkshire coach Jason Gillespie was delighted with the way his side overcame their problems.

He said: “(The England and Wales Cricket Board) took away a lot of players, banned out captain and still we came away with a 10-wicket win. It’s one of the best wins I have ever been involved in.

“I was pleased with the way we bowled in the first innings, there were just little period where we let them off the hook, but in the second innings Jack Brooks was fantastic.”

Worcester director of cricket Steve Rhodes said: “That first session today cost us dearly but sometimes you have to take your hat off to the opposition.

“It was world-class - Test-match bowling to be honest from Bresnan and Brooks. That could have destroyed a lot of batting line-ups.”

England all-rounder Moeen came through his fitness trial after four weeks off with a side strain and will meet with ECB medical staff on Wednesday.

He is expected to fly to Grenada on Friday to join the England touring part in time for next week’s second Test.