Highlights from day four
Warwickshire moved into second place in the LV= County Championship table and into pole position to secure runners-up spot with a crushing innings and 16-run victory over Northamptonshire at Edgbaston.
Warwickshire’s slim chances of winning the championship disappeared when Yorkshire clinched the title with victory over Nottinghamshire at Trent Bridge shortly before midday.
But they stayed on course for second prize by wrapping up their own victory 75 minutes later.
Warwickshire’s win took them above Nottinghamshire in the table and they could secure second place next week if Notts fail to beat Sussex at Trent Bridge.
Northamptonshire’s defeat was their 11th in 14 matches in a wretched season and their seventh by an innings and the only bright spot was another innings of promise from Ben Duckett.
The former England Under-19s captain followed up last week’s maiden century against Somerset with a busy 71 but it was not enough to make Warwickshire bat again as they were dismissed for 284 in their second innings.
Warwickshire win when Wagner ct by Trott off Barker Win by Inns and 15 runs
— Warwickshire CCC (@CricketingBears) September 12, 2014
The brilliant sunshine of the first three days was replaced by overcast conditions for the first 30 minutes but Warwickshire had to wait nine overs for their breakthrough when James Middlebrook found himself cramped trying to cut Keith Barker and he played on for 27.
David Willey, who bowled only four overs in Warwickshire’s first innings of 573 for nine declared before he broke down with a back problem, replaced Middlebrook and he initially curbed his attacking instincts.
The England Lions left-hander took 16 balls to get off the mark and broke a sequence of five successive maidens from Barker, Rikki Clarke and Jeetan Patel when he squirted Clarke for a single.
But Willey soon lost patience and holed out to Barker at mid-on when he went down the pitch to Patel.
Duckett played positively and struck 12 fours in his 91-ball innings but then inside-edged Oliver Hannon-Dalby to wicketkeeper Tim Ambrose.
Former South Africa all-rounder Andrew Hall, who will be released by Northamptonshire at the end of the season, prolonged the resistance with a stubborn 31 but he was bowled driving at Barker to the second ball after umpires Nick Cook and Tim Robinson had decided to delay the lunch interval for 15 minutes.
Congratulations @Yorkshireccc winning the County Championship Division One title. Enjoy celebrating tonight.
— Northants Cricket (@NorthantsCCC) September 12, 2014
New Zealand left-hander Neil Wagner pulled Hannon-Dalby for six and Mohammad Azhar Ullah top-edged a pull off Chris Woakes for another six over the slips in the last acts of defiance.
The lunch interval was further delayed with Northamptonshire nine wickets down but not for long as Wagner picked out Jonathan Trott at long-on off Barker, who finished with 4-47 from 20.2 overs.
Warwickshire director of cricket Dougie Brown was delighted with his side's victory and said: "To produce a disciplined performance all the way through was really pleasing.
"I know the title is not ours to chase down any more but we are still playing good cricket in second place and that remains our goal and making sure that we do finish in second place.
"We are out there in front and if we can play another solid game next time against Durham here then hopefully second place is ours."
Northamptonshire head coach David Ripley praised Duckett on his improvement within the side.
He said: "We do believe we have got some talented young players. Although Ben Duckett hasn't always found it easy in Division One, over the last two games he has looked every bit a Division One cricketer.
"There are good signs. He's improved a little bit on some of his technical work, he's worked hard on that and got the rewards. He's played very, very well."