Nottinghamshire fought back strongly on the first day of their LV= County Championship match against Yorkshire at Trent Bridge.
The visitors closed on 319-4, having been 271-1 late into the final session. Adam Lyth scored 122 (231 balls 14x4) and shared in an opening stand of 176 with Alex Lees, who made 86, the fourth time this season that the pair had taken a partnership into three figures.
Gary Ballance anchored the remainder of the day to close on 82 not out, with Gary Keedy returning the pick of the bowling figures for Notts, with figures of 2-93, from 25 overs, which included a career tally of 500 wickets in First Division cricket.
Reflecting on a challenging tussle between the top two sides in the table, the spinner said, “It was a tough day. Losing the toss didn’t go to plan but sometimes you’ve got to accept that and get stuck in, which I thought we did.
“A couple of chances went down early on, which didn’t help but the way we clawed it back was a great credit to us. We can still bowl them out for under 400 if we have a crazy half hour in the morning.”
Joe Root, skippering Yorkshire in the absence of the suspended Andrew Gale, won the toss for the visitors and elected to bat first.
Notts welcomed Alex Hales and Harry Gurney back into the fold, after England duty, with Ajmal Shahzad and James Franklin (returned to New Zealand) omitted from the eleven that played in the previous match at Durham.
Yorkshire’s batting performances this season have been built on the back of solid opening stands between Adam Lyth and Alex Lees.
The two left-handers could have been separated immediately as Lyth nudged Luke Fletcher’s second delivery from the opening over of the day but a diving Chris Read couldn’t hang on to the chance.
Fletcher, Gurney and Jake Ball were all rotated during the opening 13 overs which produced 56 runs. At that point Keedy was introduced into the attack.
The 39-year old, on his home debut, could have struck with his first ball, which Lees, on 20 at the time, edged into the body of short leg Riki Wessels but the ball rebounded away to safety.
Undeterred, Lees clearly wasn’t prepared to let Keedy settle and charged his third delivery and heaved it high over long on for 6.
The two batsmen kept pace with each as they approached their half centuries. Lees’ 50 came from 66 balls (8x4 1x6) and Lyth then matched him straight afterwards (70 balls 9x4).
A leg bye, the first extra, took the score to 111-0 and they added just 7 more before heading off for lunch in the ascendancy.
Lees was the more dominant batsman at the start of the afternoon, mocking his previous record against Notts. His only other 5 innings had yielded just 25 runs with a top score of 9.
He forged ahead of his partner but after a stand of 176 the breakthrough eventually arrived at the end of the 48th over.
Keedy was the bowler and at the third time of asking Wessels clung on to a sharp chance at bat / pad.
Joined by Gary Ballance, Lyth wasn’t long in reaching his sixth Championship ton of the season (180 balls 14x4).
Tea was reached with the visitors on 230-1 and they made solid progress in the first hour afterwards.
Keedy picked up his second wicket when Lyth (122) chipped tamely back to him in the 76th over.
Notts took the second new ball as soon as it became due and Gurney made a breakthrough in its fourth over, as Root (11) was given out lbw.
With a spring in their step Notts tightened their field and gained further reward thanks to a stunning catch by Michael Lumb. At Durham last week Lumb fell to a stunning one-handed take by Calum MacLeod in the gully.
This time the role was reversed as Bairstow’s thickish edge flew through the air and Lumb swooped full length to clutch the ball in his left hand.
Ballance, who had reached his 50 from 96 balls 5x4 1x6) was unbeaten on 82 at stumps, with Jack Leaning on 8. Yorkshire claimed 3 batting bonus points and extended their lead over Nottinghamshire, to 28 points, with the hosts only collecting one point for their bowling effort.