Yorkshire’s bowlers returned an excellent opening day’s performance to claim the early advantage against defending county champions Warwickshire at Headingley.
An attack missing a quartet of injured or ill seamers were able to make use of the new batch of Dukes balls as the Bears, who opted to bat, lost regular wickets and were bowled out for 244 inside 82 overs.
Success was shared around for a Yorkshire side who closed the day on 28-0 from 12 overs.
Three wickets apiece went to Jordan Thompson and Steve Patterson – he lost his first toss of the season at the sixth attempt – and Matthew Revis and Tom Loten struck twice each.
Wicketkeeper Michael Burgess walloped an entertaining 96 to limit the damage for his side as he batted expertly with the tail.
Fortune was on Yorkshire’s side at the start of this sixth round LV= Insurance County Championship fixture.
Three catches went down, but not one of them cost a single run as all players were dismissed on the scores they were dropped on.
Sam Hain, Rob Yates and Warwickshire captain Will Rhodes, the former Yorkshire Championship winner in 2014, were all handed lives.
Assistance was not extravagant, but certainly more obvious than throughout a season which has been dominated by batters against balls which have gained a lot of criticism for going soft and out of shape quickly.
Haris Rauf, named in Yorkshire’s squad earlier this week, missed out on his final Championship appearance for the county due to illness. Though the Pakistan quick is due to start the Vitality Blast campaign with the Vikings against Worcestershire here next Wednesday.
He has joined Ben Coad (hamstring), Matthew Fisher (back) and Dom Leech (rib) on the sidelines.
Thompson took the first of four morning wickets when, in the 11th over, Alex Davies edged to Harry Brook at third slip for 19, leaving the score at 28-1.
Sibley was then trapped lbw by Patterson in the next over for nine, without further addition to the score.
In the 18th over, Patterson then had Yates caught behind by Harry Duke (41-3) before Hain fell to Revis at the start of the 21st as the champions fell to 43-4.
Hain edged a back of a length delivery from Revis, and initially Duke went for the catch before pulling out. It hit Joe Root – at first slip – in the chest and bounced up, only for the former England captain to complete the catch one handed going to his right.
Either side of lunch, Matt Lamb and Rhodes shared an important 74 for the fifth wicket to give their side some respite.
Lamb batted with a particular flourish on the way to 45, in similar fashion to how Burgess did later on.
Yorkshire’s first of three afternoon wickets – Warwickshire went from 58-4 at lunch to 166-7 at tea – came when Lamb aimed a loose drive at Revis and was caught at first slip by Root, leaving the score 117-5 in the 47th over.
Adam Lyth then dropped his second catch at second slip, letting Rhodes off the hook against the impressive Loten.
Thankfully, moments later, the left-hander miscued to cover, where Brook took a one-handed catch above his head (137-6 in the 52nd).
And there was further success for Thompson when Danny Briggs was bowled shouldering arms to one which seemed to hold it’s line – 156-7 after 59.
Lyth took a head high catch at second slip to help Thompson remove Australian seamer Nathan McAndrew shortly after tea as Warwickshire fell to 188-8 in the 69th.
Loten then forced Henry Brookes to miscue to backward point – 203-9 in the 75th.
Sandwiched in between, Burgess went to 50 for the third time this season, off 63 balls, to help his side beyond 200.
Burgess came in at 117-5 and narrowly missed out on a third hundred of the season. In his previous two, against Surrey and Essex, he had shared in big last wicket partnerships, including a 132.
Here, he scored all of 41 with last man Oliver Hannon-Dalby as he took the majority of the strike and hit strongly to leg, including carting Loten over mid-wicket for six.
Patterson finished with the pick of the Yorkshire figures, 3-43 from 20.4 overs, before openers Lyth and George Hill (21 not out) saw out the day to strengthen Yorkshire’s position.