Adam Lyth, Dawid Malan and George Hill led a profitable Yorkshire batting performance during a shortened opening day of their friendly against Durham at the Riverside.
Lyth and Hill, who made 83 retired out and 46, laid the platform with an 83-run opening stand once play got underway at 1.15pm following light morning rain.
England batter Malan then looked equally settled at the crease – if not more so – on the way to 56 retired out as Yorkshire closed on 221-6 from 72 overs.
Both sides are fielding 14 players, with Malan joined in the visitors’ squad by fellow winter Ashes tourist Dom Bess.
Some handsome driving was the feature of a confident start on what looked to be a true surface with a short boundary to one side, with Lyth and Malan sharing 110 for the second wicket either side of tea.
The opening partnership between Lyth and Hill was extremely encouraging.
After all, that is a vital component of any four-day success, as we saw in 2014 and 2015 when Lyth and now Durham player Alex Lees prospered on the way to the successive titles.
Hill, the least experienced of Yorkshire’s top order trio, settled quickly against Durham’s new ball pair Chris Rushworth and Matty Potts.
Looking at home in a role he was first asked to do only midway through last summer, he hit 10 boundaries before edging a drive at three-wicket seamer Oliver Gibson to second slip in the 27th over.
Having taken his time to settle, Lyth’s tempo increased, and he hit back-to-back boundaries off Ben Raine and the left-arm spinner Liam Trevaskis.
He reached his fifty off 109 balls with the final delivery of the afternoon, with Yorkshire going to tea at 113-1 from 35 overs.
Malan, 11 at tea, quickly found his range afterwards and played some dreamy strokes.
While Lyth drove well down the ground more than once, Malan stood tall and hammered the likes of Paul Coughlin and Raine through the covers.
It was a reminder just what an asset the left-hander could be in the opening two months of County Championship action after limited first-class exposure in his first two summers at Headingley.
He reached his half-century off 75 balls, by which stage the score was 178-1 in the 51st over.
Malan and Lyth retired out shortly afterwards to give others a chance, though Harry Brook and Will Fraine both fell for nought to Gibson under the floodlights.
Yorkshire’s 14 does not include Ben Coad (groin injury) and Tom Kohler-Cadmore (concussion symptoms).
Coad is easing back into bowling, while Kohler-Cadmore is being monitored by the club’s medics after being hit during his February Pakistan Super League stint.
