South African Deon Kruis showed what a shrewd signing he is by capturing 5-59 as Yorkshire sent back Northamptonshire for 281 on the first day of the Championship match at Headingley yesterday.

The Kolpak player, recommended to Yorkshire by Allan Donald, grabbed two wickets in his second spell and then enjoyed a burst of three wickets in ten balls at a cost of only four runs shortly after lunch to have Northants in disarray at 113-6.

It was only half-centuries from Ben Phillips and Johann Louw that stopped Yorkshire from taking complete control.

Martin Love and Bilal Shafayat were just settling in when Kruis struck twice from the Kirkstall Lane end.

Love edged Kruis to third slip where Ian Harvey held on to a fast catch.

In his next over, Kruis found the shoulder of Usman Afzaal's bat and this time Harvey took an even better catch.

Yorkshire were bowling with admirable accuracy on a good batting pitch and Northants became 70-3 when Matthew Hoggard moved one across Love for the alert Harvey to grasp his third catch.

Better quickly followed as Kruis created further mayhem.

First to go was Robert White, who sliced to Tim Bresnan at gully. Two balls later Gerard Brophy had his leg-stump flattened, but the most valuable wicket came in Kruis's next over with skipper David Sales beautifully taken at third slip by Anthony McGrath.

Yorkshire's grip relaxed a little as Phillips and Louw launched an assault, the eighth-wicket pair securing two batting bonus points but McGrath weighed in with three timely wickets.

Matthew Wood and Jaques got Yorkshire off to a solid start with 30 from nine overs before bad light halted play.

Frizzell County Championship

(Second day of four)

Yorkshire v Northamptonshire

at Headingley

Northamptonshire First Innings

Love c Harvey b Hoggard 42

Shafayat c Harvey b Kruis 4

Afzaal c Harvey b Kruis 0

Sales c McGrath b Kruis 33

White c Bresnan b Kruis 15

Brophy b Kruis 0

Wright c Dawood b Hoggard 36

Phillips not out 55

Louw c Jaques b McGrath 58

Jones lbw b McGrath 13

Brown b McGrath 0

Extras lb9 w2 nb14 25

Total (83.1 overs) 281

Fall: 1-34 2-35 3-70 4-108 5-108 6-113 7-156 8-251 9-277

Bowling: Hoggard 19-6-50-2 Kruis 19-7-59-5 Bresnan 16-2-51-0 Harvey 9-2-24-0 Dawson 8-1-37-0 White 3-0-16-0 McGrath 9.1-0-35-3.

Yorkshire First Innings

Wood not out 12

Jaques not out 13

Extras lb5 5

Total 0 wkts (9 overs) 30

Division Two (continued)

Chester-le Street: Somerset 252 (Hildreth 70; Collingwood 5-52) v Durham 141-7 (Caddick 5-56). Chelmsford: Leicestershire 220 (Robinson 73; Gough 3-46) v Essex 68-0. Old Trafford: Derbyshire 215 (Sutton 95; Anderson 4-62) v Lancashire 65-0.

Division One

Cardiff: Gloucestershire 439-8 (Taylor 176, Spearman 73, Adshead 59, Ali 55) v Glamorgan. Southampton: Hampshire 275 (Crawley 84, Brown 51; Styris 4-45, Richardson 4-43) v Middlesex 9-0. The Oval: Surrey 217 (Benning 56; Ealham 4-53) v Nottinghamshire 204-2 (D Bicknell 91, Gallian 83no).

Updated: 10:17 Saturday, May 07, 2005