David Warner on Yorkshire Cricket

Michael Vaughan brought some batting brightness to Lord's yesterday after Middlesex's tortuous first innings had ground its way to a halt at 448 off 169.3 overs.

The Yorkshire opener hit nine handsome boundary shots to all parts of the ground to complete a 94-ball half-century which included nine fours and he was still there at the close with 56 out of 90 for two.

Vaughan is enjoying a purple patch at the moment and on reaching his 50 it gave him exactly 500 runs from his last seven innings, two of which have been not out, at an average of 100.

But a lot more is required of Vaughan today if Yorkshire are to go on to make the 299 they need to avoid the follow-on.

Yorkshire's bowlers were unable to put undue pressure on Middlesex when they resumed in the morning on 278 for four but it still took Owais Shah a while to acquire the four runs he needed to go to a chanceless century.

The talented 19-year-old then increased the tempo while his fifth wicket partner Paul Weekes stayed secure but out of touch and they had moved their stand to 161 in 60 overs when Shah was lbw to Gavin Hamilton for a career-best 140 from 314 balls with 18 boundaries.

David Nash was smartly stumped off James Middlebrook for Richard Blakey to claim his 600th dismissal in first class cricket and in the following over Weekes finally departed for 67, accumulated over almost five hours, when he edged Chris Silverwood to David Byas at second slip.

Still Middlesex pressed on with Chris Batt living up to his name with an unbeaten 23 and Phil Tufnell raising the biggest cheer of the day by smacking Hamilton over extra cover for six.

Yorkshire's innings began after an early tea and Vaughan took a spate of boundaries off James Hewitt who conceded 19 runs in three overs before making way for Tufnell at the Nursery End.

Byas, opening the innings in order to let out-of-form Anthony McGrath go in later on, moved down the wicket to Tufnell's eighth delivery and was bowled, making Yorkshire 41 for one.

Matthew Wood, promoted to No 3, scored three singles in 50 minutes before cutting Tufnell for four, but having reached 14 he middled a ball from Weekes to short leg where Nash held on to a brilliant reflex catch.

Paul Hutchison once again proved himself to be a worthy nightwatchman and he successfully signed off still looking for his first run after five overs at the crease, Tufnell having conceded a mere 16 runs in 14 overs.

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