Shan Masood rescues Yorkshire after England’s Joe Root and Harry Brook fall cheaply

They do not come much bigger than Root and Brook, and Akhter - a 25-year-old seamer playing just his ninth first-class match - had the red-letter day of a burgeoning career, finishing with 5-89 from 18.3 overs.

Yorkshire, at one point 25-3 and then 90-5, rallied on the back of a Shan Masood century and fifties from Jonny Tattersall and Matt Milnes to reach 326, Gloucestershire closing on 28-2, but this was Akhter’s day.

Founded in 2021 in an attempt to tackle the lack of British South Asian representation in professional cricket, despite a contrasting situation at recreational level, SACA is certainly justifying itself with Yorkshire’s Jafer Chohan another product.

Akhter - Cambridge-born but a former player for Oxford MCCU - is tall and slim with a robust action.

He had Root leg-before as the former Test captain tried to work across the line and Brook, one ball after he had pulled him to the square-leg boundary, skying to mid-on as he eyed something similar.

When Marchant de Lange safely pouched the catch, which seemed to hang in the swirling wind for an age, Akhter punched the air and was mobbed by his jubilant team-mates; to get rid of Root and Brook for a combined cost of 28 runs was almost beyond the wildest dreams of a side winless since they beat Yorkshire at Headingley in the final round of the 2022 season.

Root, playing his first Championship game for almost two years, arrived at the crease at 19-2.

Fin Bean had fallen to the game’s fourth ball, the former Yorkshire seamer Josh Shaw swinging one back through the gate, and Adam Lyth had been well taken low down to his right at second slip by Cameron Bancroft off Ajeet Singh Dale.

Root managed only a two to third-man off Akhter before his stay ended, but Brook - fresh from an unbeaten hundred against Leicestershire last week on his return to cricket after a family bereavement - was soon into his stride, off-driving his fourth ball from Akhtar towards the flats at the Ashley Down Road end before pulling Dale for a meaty six.

When Brook perished, Yorkshire were 80-4 - which became 90-5 when George Hill was caught behind wafting at Akhtar outside the off stump, at which point lunch was taken.

On a pitch that had no more than the expected demons for the time of year, Masood soon ticked off the single he needed to go to his fifty, reached from 83 balls with eight fours, and he found a willing ally in Jonny Tattersall, the pair transforming the picture in the afternoon session.

Masood played with typical serenity and occasional flourish, leading by example and gradually drawing the sting out of matters, while Tattersall - who made two Championship appearances on loan at Gloucestershire in 2021 - kept him punchy and effective company, pulling and clipping the ball nicely on the leg-side and sometimes cover-driving tastily.

It took a moment of misfortune to break the stand at 100 exactly in 18 overs, Tattersall, in trying to withdraw his bat to a ball outside the off stump from Dale, playing into his stumps, having hit 58 from 65 balls with 10 boundaries.

The wicketkeeper lingered a while in disbelief, as though there had been some sort of mistake, and Yorkshire should have lost their seventh wicket in the next over only for Bancroft to put down a straightforward chance moving to his left at second slip off Akhter before Milnes had scored. It was a costly miss, Milnes going on to his second half-century in four Championship appearances for Yorkshire.

Masood, meanwhile, as unfazed as ever, advanced to a third Championship hundred for Yorkshire, made from 140 balls with 15 fours. At tea, the position had improved to 243-6, Milnes growing in stature as he pulled Dale over the leg-side boundary.

Before a good-sized crowd, perhaps numbering a thousand or so, Gloucestershire stuck at their task but were not helped by some suspect catching, Masood the next beneficiary when Ben Charlesworth put him down on 127 at slip off Akhter.

After Masood was finally caught behind off de Lange for 140, fashioned from 184 balls with 20 fours, a third chance went begging when Matty Fisher was spilled on nought by Bancroft at second slip off de Lange, the easiest opportunity of the lot. Having clubbed six boundaries and faced 90 deliveries, Milnes was finally sent on his way when he edged behind a drive off de Lange.

Yorkshire slipped to 311-9 when Ben Coad spooned Akhter to mid-off, and the innings ended when Fisher top-edged Akhter to the back-pedalling wicketkeeper.

In increasingly chilly conditions in the final session, after plenty of warmth earlier in the day, Fisher broke through when Chris Dent played a defensive shot back into his stumps, Coad then defeating Ollie Price on the outside edge.