Jonny Tattersall strikes for Yorkshire but Lancashire retain the upper hand

Easy.

You bring on a man who has never before bowled in a first-team match.

Jonny Tattersall was that man and, sure enough, the Yorkshire captain struck with his fifth ball - his third to Jennings - when the left-hander reverse-swept to a diving Ben Coad at backward point.

It was difficult to know who was the more surprised - Jennings for having got out not so much to a part-timer as a first-timer, or Tattersall, who had relinquished the wicketkeeping gloves a few moments earlier to Tom Kohler-Cadmore in an effort to improve the over-rate with his lesser-spotted leg-spin.

Even more maddening for Jennings, there was time for only one more delivery as Tattersall completed a solitary over before bad light claimed the final 16 overs on an interesting third day.

It was one on which Yorkshire extended their overnight 130-4 to 255 in reply to Lancashire’s first innings total of 276, the hosts following up with 203-3 to take a 224-run advantage into day four. Jennings hit 68 after becoming the first man earlier in the match to score four successive centuries in the 277-game history of this fixture, although it was his opening partner Luke Wells who stole the show this time with a 65-ball hundred - the second-fastest in Roses history of the authentic/recorded variety.

The fastest, as readers may know, was Ian Austin’s 61-ball effort at Scarborough in 1991, an innings in which Darren Gough, the Yorkshire interim managing director of cricket, achieved his maiden five-wicket haul in first-class cricket.

Yorkshire won that match by 48 runs despite Austin’s swashbuckling heroics from the No 10 position, although they will do well to win this one - as might Lancashire, in fact, given another showery weather forecast.

At least Tattersall’s wicket brought a smile to the faces of the Yorkshire supporters, who watched in sunny conditions for much of day three.

“Keaton obviously can’t play leg-spin very well, can he,” quipped Tattersall after play. “But, seriously, he’s an exceptionally good player, who’s done really well against us this year and we’ve found it really difficult to get him out.

“In the first innings he played beautifully; it was a chanceless innings, with not even a half-chance, so full credit to him.

“It was a bit of a roll of the dice (bringing myself on). We were running out of ideas, and the over-rate was down, so it was more about if we could sneak a couple of overs in and I managed to roll them out alright as it turned out.

“It was hard work on that wicket for the bowlers - there’s not a lot of assistance there - and our lads put in a lot of hard effort.”

Earlier, Tattersall’s was the first wicket in the day’s fifth over, the captain having moved from his overnight 14 to 26 when he was perhaps harshly adjudged caught behind pushing forward at Will Williams.

Matthew Waite followed three overs later, also caught behind as he fenced at Tom Bailey, but Kohler-Cadmore showed skill as well as a proactive approach in converting his overnight 24 into a half-century reached from 121 balls.

Kohler-Cadmore was unable to advance, sweeping leg-spinner Matt Parkinson to deep-square, and Yorkshire fell to 206-8 when Jordan Thompson pulled Bailey to mid-on.

Dom Bess chipped in with a useful 27 before pulling Bailey to square-leg, and Yorkshire were grateful for a gritty last-wicket stand of 36 in 21.2 overs between Coad and Steve Patterson, which ended when Coad sliced Parkinson to backward-point.

Thereafter, Wells and Jennings dominated, Wells taking the lead en route to a 29-ball fifty which contained four sixes. Thompson was launched straight and then over the leg-side, Coad also launched straight and then Bess deposited over the onside as the tall left-hander showed effortless timing.

A fifth six followed when Wells hit Patterson over square-leg and then a sixth when Waite was hammered in a similar direction into the Party Stand.

Jennings went to his fifty from a comparatively sedate 70 balls before Bess finally got Wells for 124 from 82 deliveries, caught at deep mid-wicket by Will Fraine to end the first-wicket stand at 186, six more than the pair had managed in the first innings.

Kohler-Cadmore made an instant impact on taking the gloves, stumping Josh Bohannon when he charged Bess, but Lancashire remain in the box seat.

“There’s still a bit of cricket left in this game and hopefully we can get something out of it still,” said Tattersall.

“We can be better than what we showed with the bat - there were a few soft dismissals in there - but full credit to their openers; they played fantastically well.

“We wanted to be attacking and try and get some early wickets and put them under pressure, but they came out really hard and played some unbelievable shots.

“Hopefully we can keep them as dry as possible, get that over-rate back so we’re not losing any points in that sense, and give ourselves the least amount of overs possible to bat and see where we end up.”

* Yorkshire have announced that batsman Tom Loten and the Sullivan brothers, Harry and Josh, will be leaving the club at the end of the season.