County Championship: Yorkshire lose three wickets in bid to beat Warwickshire

Image source, Rex Features

Image caption, Former Yorkshire and England all-rounder Tim Bresnan followed his perhaps crucial 36 by snaffling three slip catches for Warwickshire

LV= County Championship Division One, Emerald Headingley, Leeds (day two):

Warwickshire 155: Burgess 66; Patterson 4-34 & 176: Sibley 45; Thompson 5-52

Yorkshire 110: Ballance 58; Norwell 4-27 & 50-3: Ballance 21*; Woakes 1-11

Yorkshire (3 pts) need a further 174 runs to beat Warwickshire (3 pts)

Yorkshire will resume on day three at Headingley needing 174 more runs to beat Warwickshire with seven wickets left after another gripping day's play.

After being shot out for 110 to trail by 45, Jordan Thompson took 5-52 as the Tykes then dismissed the Bears for 176.

England's Dom Sibley hit 45, aided by Tim Bresnan (37) and Michael Burgess (36) as Yorkshire were set 222 to win.

But the Tykes lost England's Dawid Malan late on to swing this low-scoring contest back the Bears' way.

Off the last ball of the day, Malan departed to a stunning slip catch from Yorkshire old boy Bresnan off Craig Miles to add to the two he had snaffled earlier off England all-rounder Chris Woakes, his fourth wicket of the game, and Liam Norwell.

That leaves the key figure of Gary Ballance, Yorkshire's first-innings top scorer with 58, still there on 21, to be joined in the morning by the Tykes' top run scorer this season, Harry Brook.

After the fall of 18 wickets on day one, there were 15 more on day two - and it did not take long for the boundary gate to start creaking again.

Yorkshire added just 15 more runs to their overnight score of 95-8 before skipper Steve Patterson and Ballance departed in successive overs.

That earned the Bears their 45-run halfway lead - but, although their second innings lasted 20 overs longer than their first, largely thanks to Sibley's presence for more than half of it, they were still bowled out for less than 200 again.

At 27-4, after two early wickets each for Patterson and Thompson, whose early brace included Sam Hain caught behind first ball, to complete a king pair, Sibley and Michael Burgess put on an invaluable 70.

Thompson then had England pair Sibley and Chris Woakes both caught behind in the space of four balls. But, from 97-6, the Bears still eked out a further 79 thanks to former Yorkshire veteran Bresnan and some late blows from Norwell and Miles.

Yorkshire all-rounder Jordan Thompson:

"Mala's just come back from the Test team, and there are reasons he's back in - he's a very good player. Losing him was frustrating. It could be a significant moment.

"But we will come back and try to knock it off. We've still got the talent to get 170 runs and win this game.

"We know what Brez can do. He's done it year in, year out for us. Ideally we'd have got him out early doors and we'd be chasing 160 or 170. But he hung around and got them to a challenging score and then took those catches late on.

Warwickshire seamer Craig Miles told BBC Radio WM:

"To get someone of Dawid Malan's calibre out with the last ball of the day took something pretty special from Tim. It was a remarkable catch and great to finish the day on that note.

"The wicket's been doing enough all game. We felt that if there was something in your area, hit through it. To chip in during a 30-odd partnership was pretty valuable. I've had a few ducks in a row. So it was nice to get some runs.

"The game is set up pretty nicely. The wicket is offering enough, so it's on us to bowl well. It only takes someone to do something pretty special with bat or ball and it could take their team over the line. It's fairly evenly balanced."