Bess maiden century leads Yorkshire to record win

Dom Bess made his only previous first-class century for the MCC against champion county Essex at the Kensington Oval in Bridgetown, Barbados in March 2018

Rothesay County Championship Division One, Headingley (day three)

Yorkshire 456: Malan 98 & 315-4 dec: Bess 107, Malan 76*

Worcestershire 162: Libby 53; Coad 4-39, Thompson 3-27 & 105: Roderick 27; Hill 4-23, White 2-16, Thompson 2-22

Yorkshire (24 pts) beat Worcestershire (3 pts) by 504 runs

Match scorecard

Former England spinner Dom Bess posted his maiden County Championship century before lunch as Yorkshire's bowlers wrapped up a record-breaking 504-run win over Worcestershire inside three days.

After making 10 as nightwatchman late on day two, Bess reached three figures off 115 balls shortly before being bowled for 107 on the stroke of lunch.

He shared in partnerships of 77 for the second wicket with James Wharton and 100 for the third with Dawid Malan, who made 76 not out off 64 balls to add to his first-innings 98.

Playing his 102nd match, Bess had only scored one previous first-class century - 107 for the MCC in the champion county fixture against Essex in Barbados in 2018.

Yorkshire batted on for half an hour after lunch, declaring on 315-4 to set up an almost impossible target of 610 for a side who batted out 200 overs to draw against Somerset at Taunton last week. But Worcestershire lost their last eight wickets for 33 either side of tea as the Pears crumbled to 105 all out and Yorkshire completed their largest runs victory in Championship history.

From 90-0, Yorkshire's seamers had blown Worcestershire away for 162 in the first innings, as the last nine wickets fell for just 61. But this time the first wicket fell in the 12th over when George Hill trapped Jake Libby lbw before Thompson forced his opening partner Gareth Roderick to drive to cover, where Bess clung on to a beauty,

Worcestershire suffered a significant blow in the over before tea when Ethan Brookes was bowled leg-stump through the gate by Adam Lyth's part-time off-spin of Lyth, and three more wickets fell in the opening seven overs of the evening session.

Adam Hose lost his off-stump to Jack White, who also trapped Kashif Ali. And, sandwiched in between, Coad had Yorkshire old boy Matthew Waite caught behind down legside.

Hill then struck again to remove injured captain Brett D'Oliveira and Allison, and Thompson got Tom Taylor and Hill then wrapped things up by getting Jacob Duffy caught behind for his fourth wicket to complete only Yorkshire's ninth Championship win at Headingley since the end of 2016.

ECB Reporters Network supported by Rothesay

Yorkshire head coach Anthony McGrath told BBC Radio Leeds:

"I said at the end of the Hampshire game, there were a lot of positives, even though we'd lost. I set the challenge this week in training, 'Don't let the outcome of that result affect us', and it hasn't. We dominated from ball one. It was a very, very comprehensive victory. Pretty much everyone put their hand up.

"I'm really pleased for Dom Bess. He's a fantastic cricketer. We've tried to give him as much encouragement this pre-season as we can because he's a genuine all-rounder. He balances a team.

"He's very talented with the ball, but you've seen what a batsman he can be. And that catch in the field as well. Something like that, out of nowhere, you then saw the effect after that. He's a modern-day cricketer in terms of he can do anything.

(Harry Brook and Joe Root): "They are only going to be available for one game, which is the Warwickshire game (May 2, Headingley). Joe's still away on holiday, Harry was in last week. I believe that's all they're going to play. I don't think that's going to change, but as we know it could do."

Worcestershire head coach Alan Richardson told BBC Hereford & Worcester:

"It would be an understatement to say that it's not the best three days we've had playing cricket over the recent history. The boys in there are extremely disappointed, frustrated and annoyed.

"What really hurt us was that at no stage did we have any control over the game. When you're that far behind, it makes it really difficult. You can't bat 200 overs in the last innings to save a game every week, that's for sure.

"We're going to have to make sure we put this to bed and learn from it. We have to. We've got a choice with how we respond to this, and I'm sure with the spirit and character in there it will be a good response.

"Speaking to Yorkshire, they probably recognised that they didn't hit their lengths at the start of our first innings, but they did after that. We had to play a hell of lot of forward defensives from then on, which means they're always challenging. Fair play to Yorkshire, they bowled extremely well."