YORKSHIRE captain Steve Patterson, fresh from taking the 400th wicket of his first-class career, hailed his side’s best Specsavers County Championship performance of the season so far as they wrapped up an innings victory over pre-game leaders Somerset at Emerald Headingley.

An innings and 73-run victory was secured 15 minutes before lunch, with captain Patterson taking four of the six morning wickets to fall as Somerset advanced their second innings from 159-4 to 251 all out.

South African Test spinner Keshav Maharaj completed a 10-wicket match haul after Gary Ballance, Tom Kohler-Cadmore and Harry Brook had all scored centuries in the first innings.

This was Yorkshire’s fourth win in 10 games this season and takes them to third place in the table and, in all likelihood, within 38 points of new leaders Essex with four to play. That will be confirmed later today when their game against Warwickshire is wrapped up.

Earlier in the season, Yorkshire had won away games against Hampshire and Kent and beaten reigning champions Surrey at Scarborough.

“I’m incredibly proud of all the lads,” said Patterson.

“After losing at Essex last week, which was disappointing, I said afterwards, ‘If we’re going to drive games of cricket and put ourselves in positions to win, we have to score more runs’. We knew we had to have our top six or seven making big contributions.

“For three of them to get hundreds in this game, it’s pretty emphatic.

“We’ve been working hard all summer to put things in place, and this game in a sense was the perfect game against a very good Somerset side who are top of the league.

“To go and get 520 after being put in against one of the best bowling attacks in the league, I think it’s testament to how hard the lads have worked on their batting.

“With the ball, we knew it was going to be tough work. It’s a decent pitch.

“But the way Keshav bowled, with other lads playing their part, he just showed his quality. To bowl with that amount of control and be that attacking, his 10 wickets made the difference.”

“I think all-round, that was our best (performance). In many respects, Scarborough was more exciting against Surrey in the way it finished.

“But in terms of a complete performance, to get over 500 and bowl them out twice, we couldn’t ask anything more than that.”

Patterson’s 400th wicket was his first of the morning, Tom Banton bowled.

Modest as ever, the skipper added: “To be honest, at five wickets down and I’d not made a contribution, I wasn’t really thinking about it.

“I was more thinking, ‘As captain, I’ve contributed very little in this game’. To get a couple towards the end and play a part was pleasing.”

Patterson is now set to be rested from the early stages of the Vitality Blast campaign, with Tom Kohler-Cadmore in line to take on the captaincy, starting with Friday’s opener against Nottinghamshire at Headingley (6.30pm).

Yorkshire, nicknamed the Vikings, will also face Derbyshire Falcons, Leicestershire Foxes, Lancashire Lightning and Northamptonshire Steelbacks later this month in the competition.

Last season, Yorkshire finished fifth in the North Division, meaning they fell short of a spot in the knockout stage.