India star Kuldeep Yadav vows to make county cricket return after ten-wicket haul earns spinner Player of the Round

A jubilant Kuldeep Yadav promised he would return to county cricket in the future after delivering career-best figures of 10-120 to hand Yorkshire a crushing innings-and-106-run victory over Essex at Headingley in the Rothesay County Championship.

The India international claimed 4-70 in Essex’s first innings and then produced an even more devastating 6-50 second time around to complete the first 10-wicket haul of his first-class career and earn the Rothesay County Championship Player of the Round award.

Class demonstrated

“When I was about to get the sixth one, I thought, ‘Give me one more, let me complete the ten-wicket haul!’” reflected Kuldeep on achieving the milestone.

“It’s not the home conditions that I grew up playing in but this is the ultimate home now, so playing here and getting a ten-for, it’s been so good.”

The victory, completed inside three days, all but secured Yorkshire’s Division One status. It was also a timely reminder of what Kuldeep can offer after an uncertain period with India.

The left-arm wrist spinner signed for Yorkshire in July, initially for five Metro Bank One-Day Cup matches and three Rothesay County Championship fixtures, but his first spell was disrupted by India commitments before playing a low-key role in the narrow defeat to Surrey at the Kia Oval.

At Headingley everything clicked. The pitch offered enough assistance for spin, but Kuldeep’s success owed as much to his control and variation as to the surface as he enjoyed showing his class in arguably the world’s premier red-ball domestic competition.

“It looked like a good wicket to bat,” he said. “The first innings there was not much turn. It wasn’t a rank turner, Headingley is not known for that, so I was just trying to make the batters make mistakes.

“Then in the second innings I was trying to use the footmarks to bring the ball from outside to the stumps. That was the plan, and using more angles to make the batters uncomfortable.”

A promise

Yorkshire head coach Anthony McGrath was emphatic about the quality of Kuldeep’s performance:

“You could see how much he spins it and his control of spin was just sensational. If you looked at how he put his overs together – over the wicket, round the wicket… he was setting the batters up.”

As he prepared for Yorkshire’s next fixture, beginning at Headingley tomorrow against frontrunners Somerset, Kuldeep said his short stint at the club would not be a one-off.

“It’s nice to be here, everyone is so kind and very humble and they’ve been very welcoming,” he said. “If you look at our team, we’ve got lovely lads, lovely young talent in the squad, so to play alongside them feels so good. I’ll definitely come back, that’s a promise.”

Unsurprisingly, McGrath would welcome that possibility. “We’d bite his hand off, wouldn’t we? He’s an amazing character and his passion for the game… he just loves bowling.”

Dom Bess, who claimed five wickets of his own in the victory, was equally enthusiastic, praising the Indian’s appetite for his craft and the influence he has had on Yorkshire’s younger players.

“The thing I love about KD is the love of craft,” he said. “He comes here to play and absolutely loves it. We talk a lot of spin, and we have a great relationship.”

Votes

Kuldeep received the maximum of three votes for his return with the ball.

Elsewhere across Division One and Two, the three votes from the latest round of action went to:

• Olly Stone, for the second time in four games, as Notts blew away Hampshire to further their bid to retain the title.
• The metronomic Ethan Bamber, who went past 50 wickets this season as Warwickshire rolled Glamorgan for 69 and 65.
• 22-year-old Charlie Tear, who hit 128 runs in the match as Sussex and Surrey played out a rain-affected draw.
• Josh Thomas, whose burgeoning opening partnership with Tom Lammonby has been key to Somerset’s assault on the title and who hit a hundred to help his county ease past Leicestershire.
• Martin Andersson of Derbyshire, who has enjoyed a stellar season and whose unbeaten first-innings hundred against Kent was the defining contribution when nobody else passed 35.
• Saif Zaib, who hit a sublime hundred in a game where no other batter breached 65 as Northamptonshire leapfrogged Kent into second place by beating Worcestershire.
• Ben McKinney, who further burnished his growing reputation by hitting a vital second-innings 184 for Durham, with the leaders going on to beat Middlesex by 94 runs and seal the Division Two title.
• Will Williams of Gloucestershire, who went back to Emirates Old Trafford and took seven wickets in a winning cause against his former club.

Season leaderboard

17: Matthew Potts (Durham)

14: Craig Overton (Somerset)

11: Ethan Bamber (Warwickshire), Olly Stone (Nottinghamshire), Matt Milnes (Kent)

10: Jake Lehmann (Hampshire)

9: Henry Crocombe (Sussex), Tom Abell (Somerset), Ben Aitchison (Derbyshire)

8: George Hill (Yorkshire), David Bedingham (Durham), Kyle Abbott (Hampshire), Leus du Plooy (Middlesex), Ben Raine (Durham), James Bracey (Gloucestershire)

Round 13 voting

Division One

Glamorgan vs Warwickshire: 3 – Ethan Bamber (Warwickshire), 2 – Ed Barnard (Warwickshire), 1 – Sam Hain (Warwickshire)

Leicestershire vs Somerset: 3 – Josh Thomas (Somerset), 2 – Craig Overton (Somerset), 1 – Tom Lammonby (Somerset)

Nottinghamshire vs Hampshire: 3 – Olly Stone (Nottinghamshire), 2 – Jake Lehmann (Hampshire), 1 – Manny Lumsden (Hampshire)

Sussex vs Surrey: 3 – Charlie Tear (Sussex), 2 – Rahul Chahar (Surrey), 1 – Sean Hunt (Sussex)

Yorkshire vs Essex: 3 – Kuldeep Yadav (Yorkshire), 2 – Dom Bess (Yorkshire), 1 – George Hill (Yorkshire)

Division Two

Derbyshire vs Kent: 3 – Martin Andersson (Derbyshire), 2 – Ben Aitchison (Derbyshire), 1 – Bertie Foreman (Kent)

Durham vs Middlesex: 3 – Ben McKinney (Durham), 2 – Brydon Carse (Durham), 1 – Callum Parkinson (Durham)

Lancashire vs Gloucestershire: 3 – Will Williams (Gloucestershire), 2 – Kamran Dhariwal (Gloucestershire), JT Langridge (Gloucestershire)

Worcestershire vs Northamptonshire: 3 – Saif Zaib (Northamptonshire), 2 – Luke Procter (Northamptonshire), 1 – Harry Conway (Northamptonshire)

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