Yorkshire’s Ben Cliff picked up eight wickets for 76 runs against Somerset to more than double his first-class wicket tally in an innings.
Ben Cliff takes 8-76 to stun league leaders Somerset
Cliff started the game with seven wickets in 10 first-class matches at 67.42. Yet, by the end of the first innings, he had 15 to his name on the back of eye-catching figures of 8-76 in 13.4 overs. He picked up three wickets on the first day and five more on the second to stun the Division One leaders at Headingley.
Batting first, Yorkshire captain Jonny Bairstow (79) hit his first fifty since the Championship season resumed, but Lewis Gregory, Migael Pretorius and Jake Ball took three wickets each to restrict Yorkshire to 212.
Somerset’s reply went haywire quickly as both their openers were back in the hut withing six overs, with Ben Coad and Cliff taking one each, before the latter removed Archie Vaughan and Tom Abell on consecutive deliveries to reduce them to 24-4. Matthew Revis chipped in with Henry Nicholls’s wicket as Somerset finished the day at 68-5.
Cliff removed James Rew and Lewis Gregory on back-to-back deliveries early on the second day and had Jack Leach caught behind soon after to have the Championship title contenders at 86-8. However, Craig Overton and Pretorius’s rearguard action denied Yorkshire a big first-innings lead.
The duo added 90 for the ninth wicket and hit respective fifties, before Cliff got both to finish with an eight-wicket haul. They eventually took Somerset past 200 and only nine short of Yorkshire’s first-innings total.
Congratulations to Ben Cliff, who returns career best first-class figures of 16.4-3-76-8 pic.twitter.com/MsCX9Ga4YZ
— Yorkshire CCC (@YorkshireCCC) September 16, 2026
Somerset are in an intense race for the title, having started the ongoing Championship round at the top of the Division One table with 189 points from 12 matches, closely followed by Nottinghamshire and Warwickshire on 185 and 184 points, respectively.
Image courtesy: Yorkshire CCC/X
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