Jonny Bairstow answers his critics for the umpteenth time as Yorkshire take charge

It was a day dominated, especially, by Jonny Bairstow, who reacted to his snub by the England selectors to score 107 not out, his 31st first-class hundred and first in the Championship for over eight years.

Bairstow’s omission from the white-ball squads for the upcoming games against Australia, following the loss of his Test place earlier this year, elicited the only sort of reaction likely in the circumstances, a kind of “up yours” performance that suggested there is plenty of life in the old dog yet.

Not that it was anything but a controlled, classy, responsible innings from a man who turns 35 next month (a fire and brimstone affair this was not), fashioned from 130 balls with ten fours and two pulled sixes.

Bairstow played the situation expertly on a day when every Yorkshire batsman got a good start but only Adam Lyth and George Hill also passed fifty, the latter sharing an unbroken 130 with Bairstow in 31 overs.

Middlesex and, in particular, their 23-year-old leg-spinner Luke Hollman, checked progress in the wickets column, the contest competitive. Still, it was third-placed Yorkshire who emerged in strong shape against the side who had gone into the game just one place and three points above them in the table as the promotion race hotted up along with the temperature.

It was certainly a fine toss for Jonny Tattersall to win, the weather sunny, the pitch good for batting, and with a Kookaburra ball that spelled hard work for bowlers.

The return of the Kookaburra - used for the opening two rounds of the season, and also back for the next one - is designed to encourage the skills necessary for Test cricket by increasing the volume of spin bowling, rewarding seamers with extra pace and enabling batsmen to cash in when set.

With the seam on the Kookaburra less pronounced than the Dukes, there was little, if any, deviation or movement. Throw in the added ingredient of a hybrid pitch, combining natural grass and artificial fibres, and everything seemed in the batsmen’s favour, a situation that Yorkshire - and Bairstow - were keen not to squander.

That there was no margin of error for the bowlers was evident from the start, Toby Roland-Jones punished for a half-volley that Fin Bean dispatched to the mid-on boundary from the second ball.

There were a flurry of fours in the “big first hour”, Bean and Lyth producing a number of drives out of the textbook as Middlesex struggled with their lines and lengths.

As two familiar faces looked on from the pavilion, with Martyn Moxon and Wayne Morton popular guests of a club whose new board recognises how badly they were treated, it was a baptism of fire for young Noah Cornwell, a 19-year-old left-armer on first-class debut, who was given an immediate taste of the step up in class.

Not until the clock had ticked fractionally past midday was the opening stand broken, Bean bottom-edging an attempted pull into his stumps off Henry Brookes - just about the only luckless way he ever looked like getting out.

Lyth’s third fifty in this season’s tournament, to go with four hundreds, came up from 56 balls with his 11th boundary - an easy-as-you-like cover drive off Brookes. A short time later, Lyth was struck a painful blow on the front hand by Cornwell and needed treatment, his concentration perhaps disturbed when he then played back to Hollman and was lbw for 61.

At lunch, James Wharton and Will Luxton had lifted Yorkshire to 120-2, and their fine stand was worth 66 when Wharton went back to cut Hollman and was taken at slip.

Wharton’s departure for 40 was followed by that of Luxton for 31 as Hollman - who found turn from The Howard Stand end - had him pulling to mid-wicket, a soft dismissal from the batsman’s perspective.

At 185-4, Yorkshire had not then maximised conditions, but Tattersall added 57 with Bairstow before falling on the sweep, then Bairstow and Hill turned the screw in high-quality fashion.

The biggest compliment that one could pay to Hill was that his strokeplay was up there with any of his colleagues; one or two on-drives, especially, could not have been bettered.

Hill finished on 58 from 105 balls with six fours and a six, but the day belonged to Bairstow.

He celebrated his hundred by raising his bat towards the pavilion where his team-mates and his proud mother Janet applauded, a very great cricketer and showman in the sunshine.