Will Luxton to the fore again as Yorkshire CCC seek win against Warwickshire

Only a magnificent, one-handed catch at short-leg by Warwickshire’s Zen Malik - diving forward low to his right off Beau Webster’s off-spin - cut Luxton off in his prime and denied him a slice of history, but what a week he has had on the North Yorkshire coast.

Thanks in no small part to his efforts, Yorkshire head into day four well-placed to push for a third win in four County Championship games, with Warwickshire 44-1 in their second innings, chasing a chimerical 453.

Whereas Denton (1908), Rhodes (1911), Sutcliffe (1926) and Hutton (1952) scored their twin centuries against MCC, and Moxon (1986) his against the Indian tourists, Luxton would have become the first Yorkshire player to do so in a Championship match at North Marine Road.

For the record, the only man to have done that is Michael Yardy of Sussex in 2011, the other twin centurions in first-class cricket at Scarborough being Denis Compton, Mark Greatbatch, Peter May and Yorkshire’s Arthur Mitchell in representative fixtures, with Mitchell’s coming for Shrimp Leveson-Gower’s XI against the MCC Australian Touring Team in 1933.

One or two famous names among that lot, tha knows, and even if Luxton did not quite join their number this time, this has been a breakthrough game for the 23-year-old opener. Once again, a feature of his innings was his classical driving and the occasional leg-side pick-up, not least when lofting Oliver Hannon-Dalby for six on to the Popular Bank.

There have been 20 instances of a Yorkshire batsman scoring two hundreds in a first-class match, no less, with Gary Ballance the last to do so against Hampshire at Southampton in 2017. One of the distinguished cast was actually watching from the top floor of the pavilion on a mostly cloudy and unseasonably chilly day three, Sir Geoffrey Boycott, the Scarborough club president, having twice inflicted the punishment on Nottinghamshire - at Sheffield in 1966, and at Bradford in 1983.

In initially sunny conditions, which quickly gave way to cloud cover, and with a stiff breeze buffeting the flags on top of the disused North Stand, Yorkshire needed just over an hour to take the last three wickets in the Warwickshire first innings after the visitors resumed on 225-7, 244 runs adrift.

Hassan Ali took two of them with the second new ball, bowling Keith Barker on the drive and trapping Ethan Bamber on the crease, then George Hill finished things off by bowling Hannon-Dalby for a duck. It left Ed Barnard, the Warwickshire captain, marooned on 83, a fine innings made from 144 balls with four fours and two sixes, including a straight blow off Jack White early on Sunday into the Trafalgar Square end. White and Hassan each took three wickets, and Hill and Dom Bess two apiece.

The sight of opening batsman Adam Lyth jogging off in front of the rest of the fielders was the tell-tale sign that Yorkshire - leading by 206 - had opted not to enforce the follow-on, duly confirmed when Lyth and Luxton walked out to warm applause from the 1,744 crowd.

Lyth got off the mark with one of his trademark cover-driven boundaries off Barker, then Luxton unfurled one of his own when Ethan Bamber was stroked towards the white marquee next to the West Stand, a shot of the utmost class and authority.

Lyth did not last, bowled shouldering arms to Bamber coming down the slope, and Sam Whiteman went shortly after lunch, caught at short-leg off Manav Suthar, the left-arm spinner, off an inside edge on to pad. Yorkshire slipped to 67-3 when James Wharton was lbw to Hannon-Dalby as the batsman pushed forward, but Luxton advanced to his fifty from 76 balls with six fours and looked supremely unruffled, like a man taking a Sunday afternoon stroll along Scarborough seafront.

Matty Revis was bowled by one from Hannon-Dalby that seemed to keep low, then came Malik’s acrobatic catch to dismiss Luxton, who faced 115 deliveries. There was no let-up for Warwickshire, though, as Jonny Bairstow and Hill combined to add 119 in 23 overs, playing with their usual busyness and positivity to take the lead into ominous realms. Both reached their fifties from 69 balls, Hill launching sixes off Webster and Bamber, and Bairstow a straight one off Suthar.

Bairstow fell for 62 as Yorkshire neared a declaration, skying Bamber to the keeper, with Hill unbeaten on 65 when the hosts pulled the plug at 246-6 with 15 overs left. In the closing stages, Rob Yates edged a drive at Hill to Bess at first slip.