Patterson displays the grit on which titles are laid
Amid the sort of bitterly cold weather in which even Captain Oates wouldn’t venture out, Yorkshire’s lower order demonstrated the type of grit that can make the difference between winners and losers in a Championship season
George Dobell at Edgbaston25-Apr-2016
ScorecardWarwickshire’s slip cordon feels the chill•Getty Images
Amid the sort of bitterly cold weather in which even Captain Oates wouldn’t venture out, Yorkshire’s lower order demonstrated the type of grit that can make the difference between winners and losers in a Championship season.Most cricketers can flourish in conditions when the sun is, figuratively or literally, on their backs. But it takes a certain sort of determination to succeed in discomfort, under pressure and despite interruptions and distractions.Yorkshire displayed such grit here. From a position of 209 for 6, their lower middle order has earned not just a chance of gaining full batting bonus points but, if the weather relents, the possibility of pushing for a win. And they did it on a day when the wind blew viciously cold, when play was split in what appeared to be dozens of short sessions and when anyone sensible would only have ventured out in thermals and supported by a team of huskies.While the contribution of Adil Rashid can be of little surprise – he has the class to have made it as a specialist batsman – the contribution of Steve Patterson was more unusual. Until today, he had scored only one first-class half-century – an innings of 53 against Sussex – in a first-class career that started in 2005 but now resumes in the morning requiring only six more runs to be the highest scorer of the innings.But it was the manner of Patterson’s runs that was most surprising. He is an admirable, reliable cricketer but both his career strike-rate – he had scored his runs at a rate of 35.93 runs per 100 balls before today – and his nickname, “Dead”, hint at a character that is usually solid and dependable more often than it is exhilarating and flamboyant.Here, though, he thrashed 11 fours as he feasted on Warwickshire’s frustration – there were a fair few long-hops bowled at him – and weariness. And while he looked less comfortable against the pace of Chris Woakes – described as “one of England’s quickest bowlers” by his coach, Dougie Brown – he still managed to time the ball sufficiently well that what appeared a decent yorker was speared to the point boundary before the man positioned barely 15 yards away could move.It might have been easy to presume this match – likely to be interrupted by more poor weather over the next couple of days – was heading nowhere. But who knows whether the Championship may, in five months time, be decided by a bonus point gained on a grim, April day in Birmingham? Patterson and Rashid, in particular, earned their side at least three more points that seemed likely at one stage.It would be easy to point out Warwickshire’s faults in the field. Really very easy. The innings contained overthrows, drops (Liam Plunkett was reprieved from the first delivery he faced – Tim Ambrose putting down the chance off Keith Barker – while Ryan Sidebottom was reprieved at slip by Varun Chopra off Chris Woakes on 2) and really quite a lot of wayward bowling. For much of Patterson’s innings, he was more at risk of frostbite or polar bear attack than a yorker.But this has been an awful stop-start game played in brief patches of uncomfortably cold and horribly windy conditions. It cannot have been easy to gain any rhythm on the pitch – it was miserable to watch from the stands – and it really wouldn’t be appropriate to put down a mug of hot coffee in the press box and criticise too harshly. It was not easy out there.”It was disgusting,” Brown, the Warwickshire director of cricket, agreed. “But you still have to have professional standards. We shelled a couple of catches, which is disappointing, but Yorkshire deserve a bit of credit for the way they batted. It’s quite a good wicket and the margin of error for bowlers is very small.”When play finally started – 49.3 more overs were lost on the day, making it 87.3 in total so far – Warwickshire appeared to have seized the initiative. Jack Leaning’s footless drive was punished with an outside edge, before Gary Ballance’s increasingly fluent innings was ended by a good one that left him from Barker. Had Plunkett been taken next ball, as he should have been, Yorkshire would have been 209 for 7.Instead Plunkett counter-attacked in a partnership of 43 with Rashid before Patterson helped add 91 for the eighth-wicket in 20 overs. With Rashid, getting well forward and driving neatly, forcing the bowlers to pitch shorter, the ball tended to sit up obligingly on what remains a decent pitch.Clarke and Woakes were the pick of the bowlers. Gaining in rhythm by the spell, Woakes had worked up a considerable pace by the end of the day and finally defeated Rashid with one that may have tailed in a little. With Mark Wood injured and Chris Jordan departing to the IPL, it seems Woakes may be competing with Jake Ball for the final spot in England’s Test squad. All three England selectors were at Edgbaston on the second day to see Woakes demonstrate his pace and his improved inswinger. They will know he is a better bowler than he showed during the Test in Centurion.Still, in a match containing 13 Test cricketers, it was arguably Patterson’s performance that caught the eye. On a day when nearly everyone else looked as if they would rather be somewhere else, he took advantage.