James Wharton’s pleasing middle order 58 was Yorkshire’s standout contribution in a competitive 297 all out during a hard-fought opening day at Scarborough which saw Derbyshire medium pacer Anuj Dal impress with five wickets.
Yorkshire, invited to bowl in the first of four remaining fixtures this season, made a confident start under the warm North Marine Road sunshine, with openers Fin Bean and Adam Lyth sharing 59 inside 20 overs.
Bean made 41 and Lyth 32. But they were both unable to make the most of their early good work – unfortunately, a feature of Yorkshire’s day as Jonny Tattersall also made 45.
Matthew Fisher and Jordan Thompson also clubbed late but crucial scores of 37 not out and 32 to boost the hosts before Derbyshire closed the day on 47-1 from 17 overs in reply.
Bean and Lyth looked untroubled against the new ball and both struck lovely straight driven boundaries. The one from Bean even struck standing umpire Anthony Harris and left him flat on his back.
But Lyth was trapped lbw by Dal stuck on the crease before wickets either side of lunch really boosted the visitors.
Shan Masood edged an attempted cut behind against England Lions quick Sam Conners, the captain falling for eight against his former county – 88-2 in the 27th.
And when Dal had Bean lbw – like Lyth, stuck on the crease – with the sixth ball of the afternoon, Yorkshire were 98-3 after 30.
Further success came for Derbyshire when George Hill was caught behind pushing forwards against George Scrimshaw’s pace, his departure for 11 leaving Yorkshire at 129-4 in the 41st over.
Wharton and Tattersall then steadied the ship with a 71-run partnership through the heart of the afternoon.
Tattersall ramped Scrimshaw for four over the slips and Wharton hammered a pull through mid-wicket for the same reward off Conners en-route to a half-century partnership achieved during the second half of the afternoon.
Wharton hit 10 fours and was strong on both sides of the wicket.
The 22-year-old reached his second Championship fifty off 102 balls, and his fourth in all in first-team cricket this season. One of those was his stunning 111 in the Vitality Blast win over Worcestershire at Headingley in June.
Another century seemed on the cards today, though he fell late in the afternoon as one of two more wickets for Dal as Yorkshire fell to 204-6 in the 63rd over.
Both his and the departure of Matthew Revis in the space of two overs from Dal were identical – caught behind aiming expansive drives.
Tattersall, meanwhile, cut, uppercut, worked and pulled with confidence and looked likely to reach a fifty of his own.
But Dal had other ideas and had him caught behind at the start of the evening. For the second session, he struck in its opening over as Yorkshire fell to 213-7 in the 65th.
Mitch Wagstaff took a stunner of a gully catch head high to help Scrimshaw remove Dom Bess shortly afterwards before Thompson and Fisher both hit sixes over long-on off Thomson’s spin to push Yorkshire up towards 300.
Fisher crashed four fours in one over from Scrimshaw and actually hit six boundaries in eight balls he faced from the tall quick – all to the leg-side – in an unbeaten 22-ball knock.
Thompson almost matched him, but he and Ben Coad fell to Thomson and Scrimshaw to end the innings and leave Derbyshire with a little over an hour’s batting to do before close.
Thompson miscued Thomson high to mid-on before Coad was caught behind trying to take Scrimshaw over the top.
Coad then struck early in Derbyshire’s reply, which slipped to 0-1 inside three overs. But Harry Came’s dismissal was down to Tattersall’s brilliance behind the stumps as he completed a one-handed diving catch down leg.
However, Derbyshire opener Wagstaff led a mini-recovery with 32 not out to ensure there was no further loss for his side before close.