Gary Ballance boosts hopes of England return after rescuing Yorkshire CCC in Abu Dhabi

Dig a little deeper behind the headline statistics of a record-breaking summer – the most points and the most wins since the move to two divisions – and it was not just a case of simple plain sailing.

Yorkshire often found themselves if not quite in peril en route to back-to-back Championships, then certainly under the pump at times with games in the balance.

Usually, they had such as Jonny Bairstow and Tim Bresnan to dig them out of batting danger, with Yorkshire’s batting not as collectively impressive as their bowling.

The theme of a team with character continued on day one of the club’s opening first-class game this year as they scored 275 against MCC in the Champion County match in Abu Dhabi.

After winning the toss, Yorkshire fell to 88-5 only to recover in typical fashion.

There is no Bairstow at the Sheikh Zayed Stadium – the England batsman is taking a deserved break after his winter exertions – and Bresnan experienced a rare failure.

But Gary Ballance hit the first hundred of the new season, and Will Rhodes fell five runs short of his maiden first-class century as Yorkshire’s last five wickets more than trebled the score, MCC negotiating a maiden over in reply before stumps.

In warm and sunny weather, with a slowish pitch offering just enough help to the bowlers, Yorkshire lost their first wicket before a run had been scored.

Alex Lees played half-forward to the second ball he received from Jake Ball – the eighth delivery of the match – and was lbw.

Fellow opener Adam Lyth fell with the total on 21 when he drove at a wide one from Rikki Clarke and was smartly caught at head height by Samit Patel at third slip.

It was a disappointing end for Lyth, who made a century in the corresponding game last year.

Andrew Gale – who missed that game through suspension – ended last season with a bang, and he played some nice strokes yesterday on his way to 23, the third-highest score.

The captain was caught behind off spinner James Tredwell, who also fired one through Jack Leaning’s defences as Yorkshire wobbled into lunch on 88-4.

In the first over after the break, that became 88-5 when Bresnan was deceived by a well-flighted delivery from Tredwell and caught behind.

But MCC were repelled by Ballance and Rhodes, who batted throughout the rest of the afternoon session in a stand that proved – for the umpteenth time – that this Yorkshire side does not lie down.

Ballance produced a number of trademark nudges and punches as he proceeded to his half-century from 114 balls with seven fours.

The left-hander has been in fine form on the pre-season trip, having hit 103 in a two-day friendly against Lancashire in Dubai and also impressed in the Emirates Airlines T20, where his contributions of 43 not out and 46 helped Yorkshire retain the trophy.

Ballance had advanced to 86 at tea and Rhodes to 37, their stand at that stage worth 93 in 35 overs. Ballance’s hundred – the 27th of his first-class career – duly arrived from 199 balls with 13 fours.

It will do his hopes of regaining a Test place no harm, and the 26-year-old had reached 105 by the time he was out just before the second new ball, lbw to Patel having faced 210 deliveries and struck 13 fours.

Rhodes, who helped Ballance add 125 for the sixth-wicket, made his first-class debut in last year’s Champion County match when he announced himself with 61 and three wickets.

He went on to play nine Championship games last summer – doing a decent job of opening the batting – and he knuckled down again to reach fifty from 155 balls with three fours.

Rhodes’s previous best first-class score was 79, against Warwickshire at Edgbaston, and his hopes of a maiden century looked to have gone by the wayside when Yorkshire lost three quick wickets to the second new ball.

Andrew Hodd was bowled by Ball before Onions struck twice in two balls, bowling Steve Patterson and trapping Jack Brooks as Yorkshire fell from 233-6 to 234-9.

But Karl Carver, the 19-year-old left-arm spinner playing his first first-class match for almost a year, hung around for a stand of 41 in which Rhodes skilfully farmed the strike. A sudden injection of pace saw Rhodes thump Tredwell for six over long-on and then take three fours off a Clarke over to bring three figures tantalisingly into view, only for Clarke to exact revenge by having him caught behind.