Tough day for Yorkshire CCC on return to Championship top flight

Dismissed for 121 inside 35 overs, they then watched Hampshire make 164-5 in the afternoon sunshine.

Games have been won before from such difficult positions, and this one is by no means out of reach yet, but it was a bit of a false start for Yorkshire’s new era, and there is much work to do to rescue it from here.

It was the batting, in truth, that did for the visitors, who did not bowl badly by any means.

On the contrary, they plugged away manfully and at least kept down the runs; at no point did they allow their heads to drop or their spirits to sag.

There seemed a little bit there for the bowlers all day, although conditions were more June-like than evocative of April, and it was not a pitch on which Yorkshire would have expected to be bundled out just after lunch, especially as they had chosen to bat.

The post-lunch collapse was particularly damaging.

From 106-5 when sandwiches were served, they lost three wickets with the score on 110, and another at 112, a sequence of 4-2 in 12 balls.

Earlier, they had been 71-3 and 96-4. The platform was there for something much better.

A little rustiness can be forgiven, perhaps, on the season’s first day, not that Hampshire’s bowlers were less than well-oiled.

Adam Lyth was trapped on the crease by Kyle Abbott, who keeps charging in, year after year.

Fin Bean drove Brett Hampton’s fifth delivery low to point, the ball perhaps not quite there for the shot that was played, then James Wharton edged low to third slip, who moved smartly to his left.

Jonny Bairstow, having square-driven young quick Sonny Baker’s first ball to the boundary, carved his second into the hands of a grateful third man.

Dawid Malan, playing his first first-class innings since July 2023, ran himself out when he took on Mark Stoneman’s arm with a single to cover, a particularly unwanted dismissal from Yorkshire’s perspective as the former England man had played well with six boundaries in his 31, the highest score of the innings.

If that left an unhappy taste for Yorkshire going into lunch, the post-lunch collapse tilted the day.

It was sparked by perhaps its finest ball, Liam Dawson serving up a classic left-arm spinner’s dismissal when he beat Will Luxton’s forward push with a delivery that pitched on leg and took the top of off.

George Hill, moments after playing the most sumptuous straight drive off Abbott back down the ground, edged him somewhat indeterminately to the wicketkeeper, then Ben Coad perished to Abbott three balls later off an inside edge.

Dom Bess was adjudged lbw playing forward to Dawson, and then Ben Cliff went lbw to the same bowler, trying to reverse sweep.

Dawson finished with 3-8 and Abbott 3-42, Baker, Hampton and Brad Wheal each claiming a wicket apiece.

A familiar face greeted Yorkshire when they came out to bowl, that of Stoneman.

The former England opener, making his Hampshire debut, appeared four times for the White Rose in T20s in 2021.

In company with Fletcha Middleton, Stoneman set about ensuring that the hard work of the bowlers did not go to waste, the pair raising a 50 stand inside 14 overs without, it seemed, too much trouble.

It took the persevering Hill to make the breakthrough just before tea, bowling Stoneman four short of a half-century as he tried to jab down on one that perhaps beat him for pace.

Another wicket followed soon after the break, Hill this time the catcher at first slip when Nick Gubbins fatally defended a ball from Jack White, the new signing’s first success in Yorkshire colours.

Like Stoneman, Middleton also missed out narrowly on a half-century, advancing to 45 before a forward push at Bess saw the ball loop up into the short-leg region where wicketkeeper Bairstow anticipated superbly.

It left Hampshire 106-3, just 15 runs behind, and the day at that stage was heavily theirs.

But two late wickets, as Hill bowled Tom Prest and White trapped nightwatchman Wheal, kept Yorkshire just about in it, especially if Bairstow and Malan can come to the fore in the second innings.