Kevin Pietersen, one of the brightest young stars in county cricket, gave Yorkshire's second-string attack a pasting at Headingley when he totted up 167 out of a Nottinghamshire total of 393 on the first day of the Frizzell Championship match.

Pietersen, 23, born in South Africa but eligible to play for England from September, stayed calmly in control throughout his 255-ball innings. It was not until late on that he started to take risks adding three sixes to his 20 fours.

Once again, Yorkshire were short of quality bowlers, their situation not being helped when Chris Silverwood failed a test on his injured ankle which had not responded to treatment as quickly as expected.

With Steve Kirby still not fully fit and Matthew Hoggard on Test duty, it meant Yorkshire were without any capped front-line pacemen, 19-year-old Nick Thornicroft, from Sheriff Hutton, making his first championship outing in two seasons.

Yorkshire also had another problem on their minds before the start when they learned there was a possibility that Ian Harvey could be pulled out of the match at some stage in order to join up with Australia in Zimbabwe.

Vic Craven was named as the player who would take his place if necessary but Yorkshire director of cricket Geoff Cope said he had spoken to Cricket Australia who had stated that Harvey would not be asked to travel over the next few days.

If the ICC decide tomorrow that Zimbabwe's forthcoming Test matches against Australia should be stripped of their Test status, then the tour format may be changed to include more one-day games and that would result in Harvey's call-up now.

In view of Yorkshire's weakened bowling and Pietersen's massive contribution, it was strange in the end that Yorkshire should pick up maximum bowling bonus points while Notts failed by seven runs to register a fifth batting point.

Nottinghamshire lost a wicket in their first over after winning the toss, John Blain extracting some extra bounce for Jason Gallian to give a simple chance to wicketkeeper Simon Guy. Blain struck again in his fourth over when Russell Warren was neatly taken by Phil Jaques at third slip.

Darren Bicknell packed nine boundaries into his confident 48 before being brilliantly run out by Anthony McGrath.

Runs continued to flow but after David Hussey had cut consecutive fours off Thornicroft the bowler dug one in short and it flew off the batsman's glove on to his leg stump.

Yorkshire would be pleased to have Notts on 131-4 at lunch but they suffered as Pietersen and Chris Read embarked on a stand of 145 in 37 overs. Read at times was even more brutal than his partner and he reached his half-century with his second six before stepping out of his crease to Richard Dawson and being stumped for 59 with seven fours.

Craig White was easily the quickest of the bowlers and he ripped out Mark Ealham's off-stump but Pietersen went serenely on and it was not until Ryan Sidebottom came in that he began to lash out.

Declining singles, Pietersen smacked two towering sixes off Dawson and one off Tim Bresnan.

Soon after Pietersen slogged at Bresnan and lost his off-stump,

Sidebottom exiting in the same over, while Stuart MacGill did not survive long.

Yorkshire were left with seven overs to bat and they ended on a low note, Matthew Wood losing his middle stump to his Huddersfield neighbour, Sidebottom, in the penultimate over.

Updated: 10:23 Thursday, May 20, 2004