Northants v Yorkshire: Plunkett & Bresnan seal White Rose victory

LV= County Championship Division One, Wantage Road
Yorkshire 136 & 546-3 dec beat Northants 251 & 160 by 271 runs
Yorkshire 19pts, Northants 5pts
Match scorecard

Liam Plunkett and Tim Bresnan were the chief destroyers as Yorkshire wrapped up a 271-run victory over struggling Northants at Wantage Road.

It was a fifth successive Championship defeat for the home side, who had led by 115 runs after the first innings.

They were bowled out for 160 in mid-afternoon, with paceman Plunkett taking 4-42 and England seamer Bresnan 3-46.

Rob Newton top-scored for Northants with 33, as their batting problems were again exposed by Yorkshire's attack.

• Since scoring 378 against Durham in their opening Championship game, Northants have failed to pass 300 again in 11 innings.
• No Northants batsman has scored a Championship century this summer, with Matt Spriegel's 97 against Durham the best so far.
• James Middlebrook is the only batsman to average over 30 with 401 runs from 12 innings.
• Yorkshire's win was their first in the Championship after being bowled out for 150 or less in the first innings since 1962.

Having mustered only 27 points from their first six games after winning promotion last summer, they are already facing an uphill struggle to avoid an immediate return to Division Two.

Yorkshire, meanwhile, collected 19 points to return to the top of the table, pending the outcome of other games involving Middlesex and Somerset, which began a day later.

Having been set a remote target of 432, Northants resumed on 66-3 after a half-hour delay, but lost Matthew Spriegel to the opening delivery of the final day when he was lbw to Bresnan, offering no shot.

Rob Keogh (25) did not last long before edging Jack Brooks to the wicketkeeper and Andrew Hall (24) then became Plunkett's first victim before lunch, caught at cover after being in two minds about attempting a pull shot.

Newton hung on for two and a quarter hours, but when he edged Plunkett to Aaron Finch in the slips, it was simply a matter of time.

Plunkett struck Ian Butler on the helmet before the New Zealander was lbw to spinner Adil Rashid, but finished the match himself by bowling Maurice Chambers as Yorkshire completed a seasonal double, after beating Northants by an innings and 120 runs at Headingley in April.