Kuldeep spins Yorks to three-day win over Essex

Rothesay County Championship, Division One, Headingley (day three)

Yorkshire 390: Bess 80*; Critchley 5-85

Essex 171: Bell 64*; Yadav 4-70 & 113: Walter 48; Yadav 6-50

Yorkshire (22 pts) beat Essex (2 pts) by an innings and 106 runs

Match scorecard

Kuldeep Yadav and George Hill swamped Essex with spin and seam as Yorkshire raced to a three-day innings and 106-run victory at Headingley which all but secured their County Championship top-flight future.

It would take a remarkable turn of events during the final stages of the season for the White Rose not to be playing in Division One next summer after a fourth win in 12 matches was achieved in some style.

Dom Bess' unbeaten 80 was the cornerstone of their first-innings 390 into day two before Essex slipped to 171 all out in reply and then 113 all out having been asked to follow-on.

Superb India left-arm wrist spinner Kuldeep finished with career-best first class match figures of 10-120; 4-70 from 20 overs in the first innings and added 6-50 from 16 in the second. Hill added two wickets in the second innings to three in the first. He struck four times today.

Thanks to a 22-point haul, Yorkshire now have significant breathing space from the bottom two places with two games to go. A sixth defeat for Essex, though, ensures they continue to look over their shoulders, especially with title-chasing Warwickshire to play at Chelmsford next week.

Yorkshire prised out the remaining three wickets in the Essex innings, though George Bell and Zaman Akhter delayed things by completing an eighth-wicket partnership of 68.

Bell, in his first innings for Essex since joining on loan from Lancashire last week, played very nicely for an unbeaten 64, including slog-sweeping Bess for six late on day two.

He reached his fifty off 90 balls before seeing Akhter caught behind off Hill, who also bowled Sam Cook to finish with 3-12 from 9.4 overs. Sandwiched in between, Kuldeep bowled Mitch Killeen.

Yorkshire enforced the follow-on and struck twice inside the first nine overs through Hill, who had Dean Elgar caught behind and Tom Westley trapped lbw.

And when Kuldeep struck twice in as many balls immediately before lunch, Essex were 14-4 after 12 overs and in all sorts of bother. Charlie Allison chipped to short mid-on before Matt Critchley was bowled through the gate.

While Kuldeep missed out on a hat-trick, he did claim the fifth Essex wicket - with the score on 26 - when Luc Benkenstein edged to first slip.

And Bell was back at the crease less than two hours after completing his first-innings effort.

He shared 40 with opener Paul Walter and contributed 28. He slog-swept Kuldeep for four, while Walter hoisted Bess' off-spin for a straight six.

However, Kuldeep struck again when he had Bell, playing back, caught behind with the score on 66.

In the next over, Bess had Shane Snater lbw offering no shot before Kuldeep bowled Akhter, also offering no shot, to make it 84-8.

Walter was next to go for an innings-high 48, stumped off Bess, before Kuldeep bowled Cook to wrap things up.

For new ball seamer Cook, he joined this fixture midway through day two having been released from England's Test squad but didn't bowl a ball. He posted scores of nought and one.

Yorkshire welcome title-chasing Somerset to Headingley next week.

ECB Reporters' Network supported by Rothesay.