Yorkshire win minus eight of their top players

But not many teams possess Yorkshire’s strength – never mind their skill and unbreakable spirit.

On a glorious day at New Road, Yorkshire showed why they are the champions – and why they will take all the stopping this year.

Eight of their number were missing if you include Ryan Sidebottom, who pulled up in this game with a calf injury and who is expected to be out for at least two weeks, but you would never have known it as they thrashed Worcestershire by 10 wickets with over a day to spare.

Granted, Worcestershire are the perennial yo-yo club and they may end up yo-yoing straight back down, but that took nothing from Yorkshire’s triumph.

Worcestershire still fielded a number of quality players – Moeen Ali, Daryl Mitchell, Gareth Andrew – and even established a first innings lead: 311 to 307.

Yorkshire were without Joe Root, Gary Ballance, Liam Plunkett, Adam Lyth, Adil Rashid and Jonny Bairstow (all with England) and club captain Andrew Gale, who completed a four-match ban after his verbal altercation last summer with Lancashire’s Ashwell Prince.

But after the visitors resumed on 298-9, losing their last wicket when Tim Bresnan was caught at third slip for 83, the home team were rolled over for 100 in 35.3 overs as Steve Patterson captured a career-best 5-11, Yorkshire cruising to a target of 105 as stand-in captain Alex Lees celebrated his 22nd birthday with an unbeaten 52, Championship debutant Will Rhodes stroking an undefeated 45.

Jason Gillespie, the Yorkshire first-team coach, described it as “one of the best wins I’ve been involved in” as his side – although heavily depleted – put down an immediate marker.

“They took all our players away, banned our captain, and we still came away with a 10-wicket win, so we’re very, very pleased,” said Gillespie.

“Some might argue that it was an easy win, but it wasn’t. They’re a good side, Worcester. They scored more runs than us in the first innings, and they’ve got some good players.

“It was very hard-fought. We had to fight like hell in this game and the scoreboard is probably not a true reflection of how hard we’ve had to work.

“It was a great win, but we’re also under no illusions. County cricket is a hard battle – you have to be up for every single session – and we’re going to face a lot of tough games this year.”

After Yorkshire slipped to 
193-7 in their first innings in reply to Worcestershire’s 311, Gillespie could scarcely have conceived that the result would turn out as it did.

Yorkshire felt their hosts let them off the hook from that point by setting defensive fields in an effort to protect their lead, but the positive manner in which Bresnan and Jack Brooks batted to help Yorkshire towards parity then spilled over into the visitors’ bowling.

Bresnan had fallen to the 19th ball of the day when he was caught at third slip off Charlie Morris after adding six to his overnight score, Yorkshire having scraped a third batting point.

Bresnan had received brave support from Sidebottom, who arrived at the ground on crutches after injuring himself batting the previous evening.

With Sidebottom unable to bowl, Bresnan took the new ball and struck in the third over of the Worcestershire second innings, trapping Richard Oliver shouldering arms. Then it was over to fellow pace man Brooks, who took three wickets in his first four overs to reduce the hosts to 21-4.

Moeen, who is set to link up with the England squad in the West Indies, had cover-driven his second ball from Bresnan to the short boundary towards the cathedral side, but he had not added to his score when Brooks produced a jaffa that clipped the outside edge on its way to Jack Leaning at second slip.

Brooks produced a snorting lifter to have Mitchell caught at first slip by Lees, and he struck again when Will Gidman, pushing forward, was caught by wicketkeeper Andrew Hodd.

Worcestershire lost a further two wickets just before lunch, Patterson having Tom Fell caught at first slip by Lees and Ben Cox going lbw four balls later.

Worcestershire dined on 55-6 and the rot continued after lunch, Tom Kohler-Cadmore pulling Brooks to Patterson at mid-on and Brooks returning the compliment when he caught Andrew in the same position off Patterson.

Patterson finished the innings when he had Sachithra Senanayake superbly caught in the covers by Rich Pyrah, followed by Morris lbw, Brooks walking off with career-best match figures of 9-84.

Yorkshire needed just 17 overs to reach their target as Lees struck nine boundaries and Rhodes five. A game that had been evenly-poised at the start of the day had been totally transformed and Yorkshire had made a mockery of diminished resources.

Jason Gillespie has been officially confirmed as coach of Adelaide Strikers. As previously reported, Gillespie will coach the Australian Big Bash franchise in a job that runs alongside his Yorkshire role.