Harry Brook and Will Fraine scored superb centuries to lead a strong Yorkshire batting performance as the friendly clash with Leeds/Bradford MCC Universities finally got underway at Weetwood.
A wet outfield yesterday reduced this fixture from a three-day to a two-day affair, the county’s final warm-up fixture before opening their LV= Insurance County Championship campaign against Gloucestershire at Bristol a week on Thursday.
Yorkshire closed the day on 402-7 from 87 overs.
Brook made exactly 100 before tea, Fraine surpassed that afterwards and finished with an unbeaten 123, while Dom Bess also posted an aggressive 84.
Fraine shared in century partnerships for the fourth and sixth wickets with the pair and played nicely down the ground.
Yorkshire, batting first, were in some early strife as openers George Hill and Adam Lyth departed inside eight balls, leaving the score at 7-2.
But that only paved the way for Brook and Dawid Malan to quickly insert themselves on a student attack who plugged away on a chilly but largely sunny Leeds day.
After Hill played on and Lyth was caught at mid-off via a leading edge, Malan unfurled a couple of eye-catching cover drives on the way to 46.
He shared 97 in 20 overs for the third wicket with Brook, who was dominant on both sides of the wicket in backing up a century he scored against Gloucester in Dubai a couple of weeks ago.
After Malan was bowled by seamer Ben Parker, adding to earlier wickets taken by new ball pair Sam Ellis and Kurtis Watson, Brook and Fraine shared 117 either side of lunch to advance the score from 104-3 in the 22nd over.
Fraine hit the day’s first of four sixes when he pulled left-arm seamer Reicko Parker-Cole over mid-wicket in the over he reached his fifty off 92 balls.
Shortly afterwards, Brook brought up three figures off 135 balls, including 17 fours, only to fall to an excellent caught and bowled effort from left-arm spinner Joe Pocklington (221-4 in the 48th over).
The same bowler ousted James Wharton, bowled as the score fell to 245-5, before Bess came to the crease wearing a snood under his helmet to indicate the temperature.
Fraine hit back-to-back boundaries off Pocklington to move into the seventies shortly after tea, though he was not without fortune having been dropped twice, including in the covers on 84.
Bess reached his fifty off as many balls and hoisted a pair of sixes over mid-wicket off the spin of Leeds/Bradford captain Nic Keast either side of Fraine’s ton coming up in 172 deliveries.
The off-spinning all-rounder was caught behind off seamer Watson at the start of the day’s final hour, as Yorkshire fell to 374-6 in the 81st over.
That ended a stand of 129 with Fraine, who also pulled another six and saw Harry Duke depart before close.
