Jordan Thompson says Yorkshire are satisfied with their opening day’s work in Northampton.
Thompson was a major contributor with 51 and two wickets as Yorkshire made 296 all out before Northamptonshire closed on 26-2 in reply.
The all-rounder helped Yorkshire recover from 206-7 before striking twice in as many balls.
You could make a good argument for Yorkshire having a slender advantage following 84 for Harry Brook and Dawid Malan’s 64.
But Thompson said: “I think it’s even. If they get a couple of batters in, it will be tough to get them out. We’ll have to battle hard all day tomorrow.
“I think, looking at the pitch – we won the toss and wanted to bat – when you’re bowled out for 296, you’re probably not too happy with the score you got.
“But getting to 296 in the end when we were 22-3 and 206-7 is a good start.
“It’s a strange wicket. It looked a good, hard wicket to start. But the pace is a bit variable and the bounce uneven as well.
“I’m not saying it’s a bad wicket to bat on, but there’s enough there for the bowlers.”
Brook stood out with the bat, backing up scores of 101 and 56 at Gloucestershire last week.
Thompson went on: “Harry will be disappointed in himself not to get a hundred. We know what Brooky’s like. But he just keeps churning out the runs. We know how reliable he is batting at five – he’s crucial to our team, as is Mala.
“As a group of batters, we’ve started pretty well this season. But we know we’ve definitely got more.”
On his own performance, the 25-year-old added: “I timed it well to start with, and then when I came out after tea I was scratching around a little.
“I’ve worked on a couple of things with my red-ball batting, and I feel like the things I’ve changed in my technique have worked, which has allowed me to access all parts of the ground.
“Last week, I was disappointed not to get more wickets in the game. Coming here, I was trying my best to get off to a good start. Hopefully I can take that into tomorrow.”
