Yorkshire crash to second-biggest defeat in their history by a runs margin

Seven days on, they came back from ‘Brum’ with mood deflated, beaten by 377 runs - the second-biggest defeat in their history by a runs margin.

It left them with one win, two draws and two defeats, and with a match to come against Surrey at Headingley from Friday, the challenges getting no easier before the Championship breaks for the T20 Blast.

The challenge on day four at Edgbaston was one to be savoured only by masochists.

Yorkshire were 98-5 in their second innings, 450 runs behind, and needed to bat out the day to escape with a draw.

With the big guns, as it were, back in the shed, everything depended on Matty Revis (37) and George Hill (15), the men in occupation, followed by the tail/lower-order. It was one of those days when supporters – resigned to the inevitable – wanted to see a bit of fight, something to take into the next match at least.

There was some rain around before the start of play - just not enough of it for Yorkshire’s liking.

Only 15 minutes and four overs were lost before the teams emerged in watery sunshine, a spring in the step of the Warwickshire fielders, the crowd threadbare, the temperature chilly.

Ethan Bamber and Oliver Hannon-Dalby opened up with the ball, each beginning with a maiden over. Revis then clipped Bamber off his pads to the boundary, a pleasant shot that raised the Yorkshire 100.

There were to be no more runs for Revis, who pushed forward in defence to Hannon-Dalby and was caught at second slip by Rob Yates, tumbling to his left, the wicket falling to the penultimate ball of the day’s sixth over. Hannon-Dalby almost had another in his next over but Dom Bess edged just in front of Yates in the same position.

Aged 36 now, and with more than 400 first-class wickets to his name, Hannon-Dalby continues to be everything that you would want from a bowler - accurate, challenging, giving little away.

Bamber, too, was probing and penetrative, the 27-year-old taking his fourth wicket of the innings when Hill, defending from the crease to a back-of-a-length delivery, was caught at first slip by Sam Hain. At 116-7, some 35 minutes in, any lingering hope of a miracle had gone.

Hannon-Dalby picked up his second scalp when Logan van Beek pushed forward and was caught by Yates at second slip again, his sixth catch of the contest in that position. As six slips now circled, like waiting vultures, Hannon-Dalby almost had another when Ben Cliff edged past his stumps to get off the mark, before a flurry of authentic shots from Bess lit up proceedings.

First, the all-rounder cover-drove Bamber to the boundary, the ball just trickling over the rope after the rain, and then he hit Hannon-Dalby for a four through the same region.

After Bamber was replaced by Beau Webster, the Australian, Bess played him nicely on the up through point, then twice hoisted him for leg-side sixes, something for the Yorkshire supporters to cheer at last.

Their delight was brief. Hannon-Dalby yorked Cliff with another good ball, the leg stump cartwheeling, and the match finished just before lunch when Jack White fell.

Predictably, it was Jordan Thompson who rounded things off, the man who left Yorkshire for Warwickshire in the winter striking with his first ball of the day, which White fended through to wicketkeeper Alex Davies.

Bess was left stranded on 39, made from 50 balls with six fours to go with his sixes, Bamber returning 4-50 and Hannon-Dalby 3-33.

Bess’s flashing blade narrowly prevented Warwickshire from achieving their biggest win by a runs margin, which remains a 378-run success against Northamptonshire at Edgbaston in 1927.

For Yorkshire, only the 433-run defeat to Kent at Headingley in 2019 eclipsed this drubbing, a match made famous by Darren Stevens’s feat of scoring a double hundred and taking a five-wicket haul.

Yorkshire’s final total of 171 was the seventh time in nine attempts this season that they have scored under 240. Four of those totals have been lower than 200.

In just two innings have Yorkshire batted for at least 70 overs; at Edgbaston, they batted for less than 100 overs in both innings combined on a pitch where Warwickshire reached 553-6 in their second innings before declaring.

Earlier in the game, Yorkshire had been 137-4 in response to Warwickshire’s own paltry first innings score of 147, and thus seemingly poised to gain a good lead.

With the ball, an impressive collective performance in the first innings rather reverted to type in the second.

Plenty to ponder before Surrey arrive.