This venue has been kind to Jonny Bairstow recently. His swashbuckling 83 not out here a couple of Saturdays ago helped England secure an unlikely one-day series win over New Zealand before an excellent unbeaten century on Sunday ensured Yorkshire gained the upper hand during an enthralling opening day of their match with the league leaders.
Bairstow helped along by seventh-wicket partner Tim Bresnan after tea, is in prime form having reached his 126-ball century in the penultimate over of the day. Since returning from England’s tour of the Caribbean early last month, he has scored three hundreds and three fifties in eight Championship innings to make himself, surely, an Ashes candidate should there be an injury to a batsman, never mind just wicketkeeper Jos Buttler.
The 25-year-old, a pugnacious stroke-player, was forced into his shell for a portion of this innings by the loss of four afternoon wickets, including three inside five overs, as the champions slipped from 82 for two and 124 for three to 152 for five, losing key men Jack Leaning, Andrew Gale and the Australian Aaron Finch.
Yorkshire made an encouraging start in testing conditions having lost the toss, with Will Rhodes, back in the side for Adam Lyth, their only casualty before lunch.
Rhodes and opening partner Alex Lees shared 56 for the first wicket in 24 overs before the former was bowled playing around one from left-arm seamer Jamie Harrison, who featured in his first match since May 2014 following surgery to his left knee.
Harrison bowled a miserly line and made an impressive return to first-team action. He later squeezed a full ball under the bat of the in-form Leaning, who had looked set to build on last week’s third hundred of the season before falling for 28. Each of Yorkshire’s six batsmen to fall reached double figures without passing 40. Lees was caught behind for a patient 40 off Graham Onions with a beauty, leaving Yorkshire at 82 for two in the early stages of the afternoon, before captain Gale and Leaning, the county’s leading run-scorer, shared 42 for the third wicket.
When Leaning went in the 54th over, the visitors had 124 on the board, and it was the first of three wickets to fall for 28 in four-and-a-half overs. Gale had seemingly fended a John Hastings short ball over the slips and to safety, only for Paul Collingwood to complete a fine one-handed catch as he turned and ran towards the boundary.
Hastings, the pick of Durham’s attack, then got compatriot and Victoria team-mate Finch caught at second slip as the score fell to 152 for five in the 59th. After an attritional first half of the day – no surprise given the magnitude of this fixture at the halfway point in the season – things sprung into life with the Leaning wicket.
Yorkshire only scored 124 runs in the first 53 overs at a rate of 2.33 per over before 43 runs and three wickets came off the next 10. Bairstow and Adil Rashid hit their first balls for four, and Finch hit his second to the boundary.
Chris Rushworth picked up his only wicket in the early stages of the evening when Rashid edged him to Collingwood, who took a much simpler catch at first slip with 191 on the board.
Bairstow and Bresnan, 66 not out, then switched the momentum with the most fruitful partnership of the day against balls old and new, making 138 inside 29 overs. They increased the scoring rate markedly despite taking few risks.
Bairstow reached his fifty off 73 balls and Bresnan his off 63 as they brought up their century partnership inside the last 10 overs of the day. Given their position halfway through the day, it is quite remarkable to think that Yorkshire are within range of claiming the maximum five batting points for reaching 400 in 110 overs.
