Yorkshire displayed the qualities of champions in battling back to edge ahead during a highly competitive opening day against a Worcestershire side indebted to Tom Fell’s third Championship century.
At 11 for two in the eighth over, courtesy of two Jack Brooks wickets, things were going swimmingly for the title holders, who had been invited to bowl.
In the early stages of the afternoon, however, it was a different story. The new ball pair Ryan Sidebottom and Brooks had returned to the attack to leak 43 runs in the session’s first 10 overs, a couple of catches had gone down and Moeen Ali and Fell looked in good order.
They had taken the score to 129 for two, with Moeen surviving two half-chances on nought and 21 from Andrew Hodd behind the stumps and Will Rhodes at short cover.
Moeen went on to make 62 in what is expected to be a fleeting visit to county cricket. If he can come through a return to the bowling crease unscathed later in the match, following his World Cup side strain, he should be on a plane to the Caribbean before the week is done. He was the first of six wickets to fall for 126 runs either side of tea as Tim Bresnan struck three times to match Brooks, including getting both main run contributors caught behind by Hodd. The catch taken by Hodd to remove Fell for 114, one-handed diving to his left following a leg glance, was a cracker as the score slipped to 216 for seven and later 255 for eight.
Yorkshire would surely have been slightly the happier of the two sides when bad light halted play after 82 overs, but not by much.
Gareth Andrew was starting to open his shoulders, and on a dry pitch expected to take turn later on, the spin of Moeen and Sri Lanka’s Sachithra Senanayake could be tricky to handle.
“We’ve had some periods, maybe a little 20 minutes or half-an-hour before lunch and then 10 or 15 minutes afterwards, where we didn’t quite get it right. Outside of that, I’ve been pretty happy,” said Yorkshire’s coach, Jason Gillespie.
