Yorkshire captain Steve Patterson eyes milestone at Scarborough

The Yorkshire captain heads into Sunday’s County Championship match against Surrey at Scarborough having taken 397 wickets in first-class cricket.

Three more would see him join team-mates Tim Bresnan (441) and Adil Rashid (420) as the two other current Yorkshire players to have taken 400 for the club in first-class action.

Patterson, who averages 27.61 from 148 matches against Bresnan’s 30.49 from 160 and Rashid’s 33.65 from 140, has been an equally outstanding servant with the ball.

But as he aims to make history at his “favourite venue”, the ground where he first watched cricket as a boy, Patterson concedes that he initially wondered whether he would ever make it as a county professional.

“For somebody who, as a young lad who bowled medium-pace and was never quite sure whether I was good enough to play at this level, to be closing in on a figure of that amount of wickets shows that I’ve been able to contribute something to the team,” he said.

“It’s always nice, but when you finish it’s more the games you’ve won – like beating Essex last year after they’d bowled us out for 50 at Chelmsford.

“Games like that will always stick in your memory, the Championship title wins, stuff like that.

“That’s what you play the game for. It’s not for the personal things, it’s to win games with your team-mates first and foremost.

“Yes, it’s always nice to reach personal milestones; it (the 400 wickets) was something I was aware of at the start of the year, that I wasn’t a million miles off, and you hope, obviously touch-wood, that you stay fit and get the opportunity to do it.”

For Patterson, 35, there would be no better place to get there than at Scarborough, where he made his Championship debut alongside Rashid in 2006.

Patterson has taken 45 of his first-class victims at North Marine Road (average 28.73), including five-wicket hauls against Essex (5-50 in 2010) and Leicestershire (5-77 in 2012).

“Scarborough is my favourite venue,” he said. “I watched my first ever cricket there, probably 30 years ago, and it’s been a fond place for me ever since.

“It would be nice to get some wickets at home in any case. Most of my wickets this year have come away from home, and it would be nice to contribute in front of our home supporters.”

Patterson did collect four wickets in last week’s game against Warwickshire at York, lifting his seasonal aggregate to 24 in the Championship at 23.33; only Ben Coad (27 at 26.18) has more for the club.

Patterson also contributed with the bat at York’s Clifon Park, his first-innings 60 the fourth half-century of his first-class career, and he claimed his maiden five-wicket haul of the summer the previous week in the rain-ruined game against Surrey at Guildford, capturing 5-81, including three wickets in an over.

“I’m fairly pleased,” he said of his form.

“In a sense, I’m quite limited in what I can do as a bowler and that helps me a lot because you don’t get distracted with various other things.

“You focus on what you can do and what you tend to do reasonably well.

“I’m not getting any younger, but I keep myself fit, I do all my recovery, and I feel that as long as I keep doing that I can keep contributing towards the team.”

With Bresnan injured and Rashid away with England, and with Rashid’s Championship future still clouded in uncertainty, Patterson’s skill and experience remains vital to Yorkshire.

There has been no diminution in his output since assuming the captaincy, with Patterson having initially stepped in for Gary Ballance midway through last summer before being appointed full-time to the role in February. If anything, it has given him a new lease of life.

“I think captaincy in general has given me a new motivation,” he said.

“In fact, you think less about the personal milestones and the personal achievements and more about what you can give to the team and help the team achieve.

“That’s the most exciting thing for me at the moment. To have a bunch of young lads and quite an inexperienced team at times, to be playing the kind of cricket that we are playing in general is really pleasing.”

Patterson, the definition of a team man, remains one of the most popular and respected of Yorkshire cricketers.

Andrew Gale, the county’s first-team coach, said: “He’s been outstanding all year. His leadership has been brilliant as well. I think he’s really taken to the captaincy and he’s made some vital contributions.

“His bowling... well, he’s just ‘Mr Consistent’. You know exactly what you’re going to get from him spell to spell.”