County Championship: Harry Brook's century helps Yorkshire beat Northamptonshire

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Harry BrookImage source, Getty Images
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Harry Brook's century was the third in his first-class career

LV= County Championship Group Three, The County Ground, Northampton (day three):

Yorkshire 158 & 217: Brook 113; Kerrigan 5-39

Northamptonshire 170 & 152: Procter 42*; Olivier 3-34

Yorkshire (19 pts) beat Northants (3 pts) by 53 runs

A brilliant century from Harry Brook steered Yorkshire to a 53-run win over Northamptonshire at Wantage Road.

Starting the day on 76 not out, Brook reached his ton from 168 balls before being last man out for 113 as Simon Kerrigan (5-39) completed a 'five-fer'.

The hosts were left chasing 206 to win but were quickly reduced to 28-4.

However, Luke Procter (42 not out) offered resistance before Duanne Olivier (3-34) took two wickets in three balls to secure victory.

Procter's ninth-wicket stand with Kerrigan (29) had briefly threatened to put the hosts in a position to pull off a surprise win, but the latter was caught behind by Harry Duke and their slim chances went with him.

Dom Bess, who claimed career-best figures of 7-43 in the first innings, took another two wickets to finish with match figures of 9-102.

Victory for Andrew Gale's men means they look set to qualify for the top group of the second phase of the competition.

Brook was the clear stand-out with the bat for Yorkshire, for whom nobody else scored more than 26.

Yorkshire captain Steven Patterson:

"Harry Brook has played beautifully all season. He's made some decent scores in the Championship stuff and obviously done very well in the Blast. I'm delighted to see him go on and make that match-winning score. In a low-scoring game it's probably made the difference.

"Dom Bess did fantastically well in the first innings but you can't expect him to do it all. Getting Ricardo Vasconcelos early was a big wicket because he's a fantastic cricketer, probably their most senior batter.

"We're clear enough on points now to qualify for the top group, which is our overall goal but, with the way the points system works, carrying points over from teams you've played, it's important we get some kind of positive result against Lancashire in our last game if we can. We got beaten quite badly by them up at Old Trafford."