Nottinghamshire v Yorkshire: Revival bid begins as Gale’s Yorkshire make hay

It was a good toss for Yorkshire captain Andrew Gale to win as his side look to get their season back on track.

Yorkshire have batted poorly in every game this year, losing wickets in clumps and failing to capitalise on good starts.

Yesterday presented a golden chance to make amends and they took advantage, reaching 291-3 against the champions.

Joe Root led the way with 89 not out, his maiden first-class half-century displaying a composure that belied his 20 years.

Adam Lyth chipped in with 57, while fellow opener Joe Sayers made 50 on his return to Championship action after he was dropped following the opening game at Worcester.

Jonny Bairstow finished unbeaten on 50, adding 107 for the fourth-wicket with Root.

Bairstow will never have a better opportunity to score his maiden first-class hundred after 17 fifties, while Root – dropped on 88 in the penultimate over by Neil Edwards in the gully off Steven Mullaney – is within spitting distance of the same landmark in only his fourth Championship match.

Yorkshire – missing Anthony McGrath (sciatica) – made a deceptively sedate start, scoring only nine runs during the first seven overs as Nottinghamshire bowled tightly.

Lyth then pushed a ball from Andre Adams through the covers for four – “pushed” being the operative word as it rolled to the short boundary on the Bridgford Road side of the ground.

Even the class wimp would fancy his chances of sending the ball to that rope – although it meant the boundary on the Fox Road side was conversely so far away it was only visible through telescope.

The game was effectively being played on one side of the ground, as though the other half was mined, or littered with precious china.

Lyth and Sayers batted with few alarms during a morning session in which they lifted Yorkshire to 101-0.

Nottinghamshire may have won their opening three Championship games – including last month’s extraordinary game at Headingley Carnegie when they recovered from minus 26-6 in their second innings to prevail by 58 runs in one of the greatest comebacks in recent times.

But they may struggle to win the title this time and, with Charlie Shreck ruled out here with a knee injury and Adams clearly still struggling after a hamstring injury suffered at Headingley – he managed only nine overs yesterday – they found it tough going in the docile conditions.

How Chris Read must wish he could have called on Graeme Swann, who was seen bowling on the square during the lunch interval with Yorkshire’s Tim Bresnan.

Frankly, it was an insult to the paying public that the two England bowlers – through no fault of their own – were practising on the field and yet are not allowed to play in the game by the England management, who have ordered them to rest after their winter exertions.

The most striking feature of Lyth and Sayers’s partnership was the respective approach of both batsmen.

Lyth visibly reined himself in after failing to cash in on some promising starts, while Sayers scored with a little more freedom than usual and helped provide the sort of solidity Yorkshire have been missing.

So comfortable did the pair appear it was some surprise when they fell not long into the afternoon session.

Sayers was caught at first slip by Alex Hales off Luke Fletcher with the total on 114 and, two balls later, Lyth miscued a pull off Paul Franks and was superbly caught over his shoulder at mid-on by substitute fielder Oliver Swann.

Having unexpectedly forced their way back into the contest, Nottinghamshire sniffed more wickets.

But Root and Gale played with common sense and determination to snuff out the threat of a collapse, defending resolutely and seizing any scoring chances that presented themselves.

As their stand progressed, Nottinghamshire grew understandably frustrated as their own window of opportunity gradually slammed shut.

Batting seemed a straightforward business once more until Gale, on 32, top-edged a sweep off left-arm spinner Samit Patel and was caught around the corner by Adam Voges, who anticipated brilliantly to run round from first slip to take the catch.

Nottinghamshire sometimes strayed in direction to Root, who proved himself adept at putting the ball away on both sides of the wicket.

He is clearly a highly versatile player with the talent, on this evidence, to slot anywhere in the top-order.

Yorkshire reached tea on 210-3 – at which point the day had yet to reveal its hand.

It did so during a final session in which Root and Bairstow ensured the earlier foundations were not permitted to go to waste.

Bairstow had one or two anxious moments early on but, for the most part, looked a class act as he drove with power and poise.

One straight six into the Radcliffe Road stand off Patel was so effortless that Bairstow might as well have been playing in someone’s back garden.