Report: Yorkshire v Warwickshire, Day Four, Rothesay County Championship

Yorkshire 469 all out and 246-6d v Warwickshire 263 all out and 333-8. Match drawn. 

Sam Hain thwarted Yorkshire for the second time this season as he batted Warwickshire to the verge of a Rothesay County Championship draw at Scarborough, something his lower order colleagues later confirmed. 

Yorkshire had much the better of this Division One fixture between two counties with two wins to their name and were confident of a claiming a third at the start of day four, with the Bears 44 for one chasing an unlikely 453.

Warwickshire slipped to 93 for four inside the first 17 overs of the day, but classy Hain underpinned the revival bid with a skilful 69 off 218 balls.

Hain shared fifth and sixth-wicket partnerships of 87 and 86 with Beau Webster and captain Ed Barnard, whose 58 represented his second half-century of the match. Both fell inside the final 20 overs, but the Bears clung on to close on 333 for eight. 

Warwickshire are now fourth in the table on 98 points, five behind leaders Essex. Yorkshire are seventh on 87. 

Last month, in a big Warwickshire win at Edgbaston, Hain posted scores of 57 and 164 not out. Here, he helped them to a 12-point haul to Yorkshire’s 16. 

It looked like being roles reversed here in terms of the result when Yorkshire enjoyed a profitable morning with three wickets. Two of them went to superb catches.

The first was a one-handed return catch going to his right from George Hill to remove Alex Davies, the second a fine tumbling effort just inside the long-on boundary rope from Jack White to help Hassan Ali remove nightwatchman Ethan Bamber, who had played nicely for 23.

Hill (three for 32 from 14 overs) also had Dan Mousley caught at second slip on the drive in the same over as that Davies dismissal – the 21st over of the innings, the sixth of the day.

Australian Webster offered a return catch to Ben Cliff early in his innings but survived to reach lunch on 27 alongside Hain. Warwickshire were 139 for four. 

There were only brief signs of aggression as Webster and Hain cautiously shared 87 for the fifth wicket and were looking settled.

Although Webster did move to 49 with two boundaries through cover off the back foot against Dom Bess’s off-spin. However, playing back again later in the over, he was bowled as the score slipped to 180 for five in the 59th.

Hain dispatched a Bess full toss for six over long-on en-route to his 142-ball fifty. 

He found another partner in Barnard, and they took the score to 237 for five at tea with 35 overs remaining.

In that aforementioned Warwickshire win at Edgbaston, the pitch got more and more placid. And it did here too. There were still signs of spin and uneven bounce today but very little pace.

Hain navigated seam and spin confidently, including the short-ball tactic from Cliff either side of tea. Barnard, meanwhile, backed up his first-innings 83 not out. 

Yorkshire got the use of a new ball with a minimum of 31 overs left in the day.

At one point, Hassan switched the bails around at the striker’s end as he bowled to Hain for a change of luck. So Hain put them back as they were, only for Jonny Bairstow to run from behind the stumps and switch them back again – much to the amusement of the crowd.

Yorkshire’s hopes increased when Bess had Hain caught at short-leg – 266 for six – with the best part of 19 overs remaining. 

And even more so when Matthew Revis had Barnard caught behind with 13.3 overs left. 

But Zen Malik and Manav Suthar completed Warwickshire’s survival task even though the latter fell for 37 to Hassan with five balls remaining. Malik finished unbeaten on 20.