Headingley latest: Sidebottom shines in Roses battle

Lancashire overcame difficult conditions early on to finish on 304 for seven in 85.3 overs as Croft (54) and Smith (51) steered them towards a respectable total.

Yorkshire had South African left-hander Jacques Rudolph back in the side after arriving in the country the previous day and they also gave a first-class debut to 26-year-old fast bowler Iain Wardlaw, who will make way for Tim Bresnan should he not be required for the Test match at Lord’s.

There was sufficient in the pitch to suggest that Yorkshire had made the right decision to insert Lancashire and after Sidebottom had beaten Paul Horton several times in the opening over, Wardlaw was unfortunate to see the same batsman edge wide of gully for four.

Sidebottom struck in his second over by trapping Stephen Moore lbw without scoring and Wardlaw was again without luck when Karl Brown edged him over the top of Joe Root’s head at fourth slip.

Brown looked in good form until he drove too casually outside off-stump at Sidebottom to be caught by Rudolph at first slip and after a demanding opening spell the former England all-rounder was rested with figures of 8-2-10-2.

Ajmal Shahzad - working up a good pace off his long run - and the impressive Richard Pyrah kept it tight when they took over the attack but Horton and Mark Chilton got their heads down in typical Roses fashion to take Lancashire to a respectable 79 for two at lunch.

Horton had made 36 in the morning session but he could not add to his score because with the second ball of the afternoon Shahzad extracted extra bounce and the opener was caught behind by Jonny Bairstow.

Sidebottom returned to produce a good ball which Chilton edged to Anthony McGrath at second slip for 33 and Lancashire would have lost half their wickets for 135 if McGrath had not then dropped a two-handed chance above his head from the obdurate Croft.

It turned out to be a costly miss because Croft and Smith settled in well together and Croft completed his half-century off 96 balls by sweeping Adil Rashid for his eighth boundary.

The fifth-wicket pair put on 77 together in 32 overs but, with rain around, the light began to deteriorate and Croft did not appear to pick up the last ball before tea from Shahzad and was yorked.

Rain extended the tea interval without causing a reduction in overs and shortly after play resumed Gareth Cross deflected a ball from Shahzad to fourth slip where Pyrah appeared late in seeing the chance and the batsman got four to third man.

When further rain took the players off again, Smith was unbeaten on 36 and Cross was on 15, the hold-up causing seven overs to be lost. On the restart, Smith drove Shahzad powerfully for consecutive fours and reached his 50 from 79 deliveries with nine boundaries but he slashed at Wardlaw and was caught behind to bring the bowler his maiden first-class wicket.

There was applause from the home fans when Pyrah deservedly got among the wickets by nipping one back to pin Cross lbw for 30 and make Lancashire 251 for seven but Sajid Mahmood soon boosted the score with a couple of big sixes off Rashid and he and Glen Chapple had added an unbeaten 50 when bad light ended play with 3.3 overs remaining.

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