Monday 7 July 2014 20:12, UK
Adam Lyth and Alex Lees put on an opening stand of 270 as Division One leaders Yorkshire reached 367-7 on day one of their LV= County Championship clash with Durham at Headingley.
Visiting captain Paul Collingwood put Yorkshire in to bat and then looked on helplessly while Lyth and Lees both hit centuries before the first wicket finally fell with 71.3 overs gone.
Lees was dismissed by Scott Borthwick for 108, with Lyth departing soon afterwards for 143 and the visitors finished strongly by clinching five more wickets before the close.
The opening stand was a Yorkshire record for the first wicket against Durham and when Lyth had reached 126 it gave him 1,000 first-class runs for the season.
Borthwick achieved the long-awaited breakthrough by pinning Lees lbw moving across his stumps and a fine burst from Mark Wood (4-76) meant the hosts’ day ended on a sour note despite the fact they secured four batting bonus points.
Wood’s scalps included Lyth and skipper Andrew Gale (5), who were both trapped lbw on the back foot, and Jonny Bairstow, who was bowled shouldering arms for a second-ball duck.
Elsewhere in Division One, Sussex took complete control of their bottom-of-the-table clash with Northamptonshire after making the visitors follow on on day two at Hove.
After Sussex were bowled out for 405 in their first innings, home seamer Steve Magoffin helped skittle Northants for 116 and they were then reduced to 80-3 after being asked to bat again, a deficit of 209.
Magoffin, who is now the leading wicket-taker in the country, claimed three wickets from his first 12 balls to leave the visitors reeling on 0-3. The Australian eventually finished with first-innings figures of 5-12 from 11 overs.
From that predicament Northants, who have not yet won a four-day match this year, at least managed to reach three figures after face-saving knocks from James MIddlebrook (28), Steven Crook (24) and David Willey (21).
Considering what had happened earlier in the day there was every prospect that Sussex could complete the win inside two days but the visitors did offer more resistance after tea despite losing three wickets.
At Uxbridge, Dawid Malan moved within 10 runs of his second century in successive matches as Middlesex finished the first day of their clash with Somerset on 211-4.
The visitors dropped four catches as Malan, who had not made a championship hundred for nearly two years until last week, shared partnerships of 109 with Nick Gubbins and 73 with Eoin Morgan.
The pitch at Uxbridge was livelier than usual but Somerset failed to take advantage on a day which was ended by rain just before tea.
Emerging left-hander Gubbins scored 59 before Alfonso Thomas had him caught behind, while Morgan was removed by Peter Trego having made just 12 off 52 balls.
The England star had been dropped twice during his 80-minute knock, with Somerset also putting down Gubbins on 46 and Malan on 55.
