County Championship: Jack Leaning and Jack Brooks combine to put Yorkshire in control against Lancashire

Jack Leaning posted his first hundred in the Specsavers County Championship since June 2015 as Yorkshire dominated a rain-affected second day of the Roses match at Emirates Old Trafford.
Patience: Jack Leaning took 258 balls to reach his centuryPatience: Jack Leaning took 258 balls to reach his century
Patience: Jack Leaning took 258 balls to reach his century

Only 43 overs of play were possible as the White Rose advanced their first innings from 251 for six from 96 overs overnight to 421 for seven from 139, including an unbeaten career best 94 off 135 balls for Jack Brooks.

The pair even shared an unbroken eighth-wicket partnership of 165 inside 40 overs, a Roses record for either side.

Leaning finished the day with 117 not out off 288 balls.

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Six overs were bowled during the first half hour of the day before play restarted at 4.15pm with 37 remaining.

Leaning reached 50 in the latter stages of day one before Andrew Hodd departed in the early stages of day two to end a seventh-wicket stand of 78.

Hodd had posted a well made 44 with five fours in 71 balls.

But he played on to seamer Tom Bailey and lost his off stump as the score fell to 256 for seven in the 100th over, Lancashire’s only success of the day.

Leaning and Brooks, playing his first match of the season following a calf injury picked up in mid-March, later took Yorkshire beyond the 400 the mark.

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However, they did not manage to secure a third batting bonus point for passing 300 before the 110-over cut off point.

Following an exceptional first half of the 2015 Championship campaign, which yielded three hundreds, Leaning has struggled for runs and, as a result, a regular place in the side.

But the 23-year-old battled hard here on a slow pitch against a tidy home attack minus their spearhead Jimmy Anderson due to his groin injury.

Having reached 50 off 146 balls, including two sixes, he later brought up three figures off 260 in his 360th minute at the crease.

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Anderson, meanwhile, failed to take the field on day two and will be sent for a scan on his right groin on Monday.

He will not bowl again in this match, but he may bat if needed.

That left Lancashire with four specialist bowlers, with Ryan McLaren and Stephen Parry their standouts.

Brooks lofted Simon Kerrigan down the ground for his only six in a 100-ball fifty in the 128th over of the innings before Leaning reached three figures, including six fours and two sixes, in the next.

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With the field now widely spread and Lancashire’s attack looking tired, Brooks slog-swept Parry and hit Liam Livingstone over long-on for his second and third sixes as Yorkshire approached 400 in the latter stages of play.

He later pulled Steven Croft’s medium pace over deep backward square for his fourth maximum to move into the nineties.