Yorkshire 601 for 6 dec (Hill 169*, Bairstow 160, Lyth 61, Bess 60*, Hollman 4-194) and 150 for 2 (Lyth 62, Wharton 50*) drew with Middlesex 522 (Higgins 155, Robson 108, Davies 61, Holden 51, Bess 7-179)
Middlesex and Yorkshire, second and third in Division Two, will head into the final three games of the Vitality County Championship season separated by just one point after they put the finishing touches on a high-scoring draw on day four at Headingley.
The promotion rivals will battle it out with leaders Sussex for two top-flight places in 2025.
Middlesex started the final day on 441 for five in their first-innings reply to Yorkshire’s 601 for six declared. They reached the follow-on target of 452 comfortably but were bowled out for 522 in the closing stages of the morning.
Yorkshire took 13 points from this 11th round fixture and Middlesex 11.
Given the placid nature of the pitch – only two batters across both sides failed to reach double figures during the four days – this final day was unlikely to be one that lived long in the memory, as a crowd of only 237 indicated.
It started with no prospect of a win for either side, especially given both wouldn’t want to risk a defeat to their closest rivals in the table.
If this had been a final round dead rubber, for example, it would have been no surprise to see a contrived result. But there was absolutely no chance of that in a match with such high stakes.
Despite conceding 522, with Sam Robson’s opening 108 yesterday supporting in-form Higgins, Yorkshire bowled tidily and kept the scoring rate below three runs per over.
Of the 174.4 overs in the Middlesex innings, 143.4 of them were bowled by the spin of Bess, Dan Moriarty and Lyth.
Bess and left-armer Moriarty – nought for 174 from 61 – bowled more overs than they ever had previously done in a first-class innings.
Bess led the way impressively, while new ball seamer Ben Coad added two wickets during the fourth morning to finish with three for 54 from 14 overs.
Bess made the breakthrough in the day’s second over when he had Luke Hollman caught at second slip by Jonny Bairstow – one-handed at the third attempt, leaving Middlesex 441 for six.
Despite being 11 runs short of the follow-on, there were no alarms during the early stages of a day played out under the Headingley floodlights.
Higgins reached his 150 off 252 balls. Of his five Championship centuries this season, four have been above 150.
But he was next to go, bowled by Coad, who uprooted off and middle stumps. And when Coad bowled captain Toby Roland-Jones shortly after, Middlesex were 513 for eight in the 169th over.
Bess then wrapped up the innings, and his third career seven-wicket haul, by getting Tom Helm caught at short-leg and Noah Cornwell brilliantly caught by a diving Jordan Thompson as he ran back from mid-off.
Yorkshire started their second innings just before lunch with personal milestones and time in the middle the only targets.
Lyth needed 105 to reach 1,000 Championship runs for the season, a milestone Higgins achieved in his innings on day three.
Having shared 66 for the first wicket with Fin Bean, he reached his fifty in 63 balls after lunch in no frills fashion. But he fell short of a century and 1,000 when he drove Tom Helm’s seam to short cover on the verge of tea, leaving Yorkshire 149 for two in the 34th over.
Earlier, Bean had been trapped lbw by Hollman’s leg-spin for 30, while Wharton added the aggression, pulling two of the three sixes he hit against spin.
The latter reached his fifty just after tea, off 55 balls, but the players left the field for the light almost immediately and did not return.
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