YORKSHIRE, robbed of five of their leading pace bowlers either through Test calls or injuries, did well to restrict Leicestershire to 286 for six when bad light stopped play on the opening day of the Championship match at Grace Road yesterday.
But they might well have been even more successful if Chris Silverwood and Gavin Hamilton had made better use of the new ball after Leicestershire had won the toss.
The pair failed to exploit helpful conditions through the air and were generally so wide of the mark that openers Darren Maddy and Iain Sutcliffe could hardly lay a bat on anything and it was the tenth over before Maddy registered the first boundaries by turning Hamilton to long leg and guiding him to third man.
At 25 without loss in 12 overs, Chris Elstub came on for Silverwood and immediately justified his inclusion in the side by getting Sutcliffe to tickle a legside catch to Simon Guy off the medium pacer's second ball.
Australian Darren Lehmann, captaining Yorkshire in the absence of David Byas, who is recovering from his knee operation, then brought on Gary Fellows for Hamilton and again it proved to be a shrewd move because in his second over Ben Smith nudged an outswinger to Anthony McGrath at first slip.
A score of 28 for two rather flattered Yorkshire's bowling so far but Maddy and Aftab Habib quickly settled into a stand of 108 in 33 overs with both batsmen taking full advantage of anything loose from the inexperienced attack.
Left-arm spinner Ian Fisher was never allowed to settle and Habib went after him from the start with a fine shot off his legs to the mid-wicket boundary and a lofted straight drive which brought him another four later in the over.
Maddy, who carried his bat with an unbeaten 158 in the corresponding match at Grace Road last year, was first to his 50 off 129 balls with seven fours, while Habib went to the same landmark in the grand manner with a towering six over long on off Fisher.
Just when things were getting out of control, Silverwood struck in consecutive overs to send back both batsmen in by far his best spell of the day. Maddy, having moved to 66 off 150 balls with nine fours, could not avoid a splendid delivery which swung away late, and Habib was caught behind from a careless drive for 59 after receiving 119 balls and hitting six fours and a six.
Once again, Leicestershire wrested back the initiative with a positive 70 stand in 28 overs between Darren Stevens and Vince Wells before Hamilton also made amends for his loose start with a wicket either side of tea.
He nipped one back between Wells' bat and pad to bowl him through the gate for 27 and denied Stevens his half century by trapping him lbw for 49 as he wandered across his crease.
Anil Kumble smacked Fisher over extra cover for six but there was finally some reward for the spinner when Jon Dakin dragged him to Elstub at wide mid-on and then Kumble left his crease for Guy to pull off the first stumping of his young career.
Neil Burns and Carl Crowe came together at 271 for eight and were still there when the light became too bad to continue with eight overs of the day remaining.
SCOREBOARD
PPP healthcare County Championship
Leicestershire v Yorkshire
at Leicester
(Today, Day 2 of 4)
Leicestershire First Innings
Maddy c Guy b Silverwood 66
Sutcliffe c Guy b Elstub 2
Smith c McGrath b Fellows 0
Habib c Widdup b Silverwood 59
Stevens lbw b Hamilton 49
Wells b Hamilton 27
Dakin c Elstub b Fisher 6
Kumble st Guy b Fisher 19
Burns not out 26
Crowe not out 3
Extras b2 lb6 w8 nb13 29
Total 8 wkts (96 overs) 286
Fall: 1-25 2-28 3-136 4-151 5-221 6-222 7-244 8-271
Bowling: Silverwood 20-4-41-2 Hamilton 19-2-61-2 Elstub 15-3-27-1 Fellows 17-5-49-1 Fisher 24-2-95-2 Lehmann 1-0-5-0
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