Entertainment is the name of the game for Yorkshire CCC as they seek opening round win

But there seems little difference in the positive way that Yorkshire and England are going about their cricket, and if the evidence of the first two days of the season is any indication, Yorkshire’s supporters can look forward to an entertaining as well as a successful year, pesky points deductions permitting, of course.

As we await the outcome of the Cricket Discipline Commission sanction hearings into the racism farrago, with Yorkshire having admitted to four charges that warrant far greater scrutiny than they have hitherto received, we have at least seen enough from Gough and Ottis Gibson’s men to know that the cricket should bring considerably more pleasure than the off-the-field shenanigans.

Leicestershire may be the County Championship’s whipping boys, their backsides red-raw from years of struggle and underwhelming performance, but that Yorkshire possess a group of exciting cricketers cannot be doubted as they seek to bounce back into Division One.

At the halfway stage of this particular Easter story, one in which the resurrection of a devastated club is taking considerably longer than three days (three decades, anyone?), Leicestershire are 201-5 in reply to Yorkshire’s 517, the hosts well-placed to push for a win despite a fourth-wicket partnership of 121 between Colin Ackermann (67) and Peter Handscomb (62 not out), the latter once of this parish.

If the advent of “Bazball” has taught us anything, with Ben Stokes and Brendon McCullum having revolutionised England’s approach to the Test game, it is that style and results can co-exist, and that fortune so often favours the brave. That Yorkshire are buying into the underlying concept was evident in many of the individual contributions at Headingley on Good Friday, where the sun shone on a crowd that looked to be on the right side of four figures this time, as opposed to the one that had looked exceedingly thin on Maundy Thursday, a reflection of how the racism fall-out has damaged interest and respect.

First, Matt Milnes, the nightwatchman on debut, pulled spinner Ackermann into the bright blue seats of the West Stand; then he took three successive fours off leg-spinner Rehan Ahmed’s first over, pulling him, smashing him through mid-off and then paddling him to the rope.

To say that Ahmed, 18, has come down to earth with a bump in this game, following the high of his Test debut in December, is an understatement; although he finished with the best figures of 3-89, there were plenty of wayward deliveries that could not be excused by the April conditions – surprisingly clement, actually, with the worst of the weather hopefully stored up by the cricketing gods for August and the start of The Hundred.

After Dawid Malan completed one of the easiest hundreds of his career, advancing from an overnight 91 to 132 before picking out long-off, Milnes played well, finding the boundary eight times en route to a 70-ball fifty. Shai Hope’s love affair with Headingley (147, 118 not out and 77 were his previous scores there for the West Indies) did not continue this time with an innings of 13, the new signing slashing to backward-point in attempting to hit Ackermann over the top.

George Hill came down the track and was stumped; Milnes fell three short of his career-best 78 when Michael Finan swung one back in, and Matty Revis top-edged to mid-wicket. But Jordan Thompson and Dom Bess treated the crowd to some memorable strokes, Thompson bringing up maximum batting points with a six over mid-wicket off Chris Wright, who he then hooked for another maximum before pulling Finan for six. Thompson finally spooned to mid-off, but Bess twice launched Wright over the leg-side and into the West Stand in the space of three balls, the second blow raising the Yorkshire 500.

Bess then scooped Wright over fine-leg for six, taking the ball from outside the off stump and almost performing a backward somersault in the throes of a remarkable shot. Bess was last out one short of a deserved fifty, bowled trying to pull after a sparkling 43-ball innings that contained nine boundaries.

After Yorkshire had added 232 to their overnight score in just 42 overs, Leicestershire also raced along at five an over in the early stages. However, they lost Sol Budinger to a wayward hoik, the left-hander giving Milnes his first wicket in a Yorkshire shirt when he skied to mid-off, and then Ben Coad clipped the outside edge of Lewis Hill’s bat, Adam Lyth doing the rest at second slip.

There followed perhaps the day’s highlight courtesy of Thompson, who took a quite magnificent catch, diving full-length in his follow-through to take the ball in his outstretched right hand after Rishi Patel had hit ball on to pad.

From 64-3 when Patel departed, Ackermann and Handscomb rallied, although the latter should have gone for 41 only for Hill to let the chance go through his hands at first slip off Thompson.

Yorkshire finally broke the stand when Ackermann patted back a return catch to Milnes, who then had Wiaan Mulder caught behind.