Revived Brooks shows benefit of a break

Yorkshire 96 for 4 trail Middlesex 212 (Compton 70, Brooks 5-44) by 116 runs
Scorecard

This was more like it from Yorkshire, who had looked out of sorts as they escaped with a draw in Somerset a couple of weeks ago. They bowled superbly, with control and discipline, as the Division One leaders, Middlesex, were restricted to only one batting point after James Franklin, on winning the toss, had been content to invite Yorkshire to field.

Jack Brooks, wicketless in Taunton, advertised the restorative benefits of a 10-day break by taking 5 for 44. Brooks is in his third season at Headingley after his move from Northamptonshire but he still celebrates every wicket as if it is his first, wheeling away to his left, fists pumping, crossing at least half a dozen neighbouring strips before coming to a halt.

He came up with some terrific deliveries, dismissing Joe Burns, the Australian opener, with the ninth ball of his opening five-over new ball spell at the Football Stand End before returning for the final half hour of the morning at the Kirkstall Lane End, removing Sam Robson with his fifth ball, one that nipped back and beat the erstwhile England opener's defence to clip the top of middle and off stumps.

Robson was probably a key wicket, given that he was striking the ball nicely and taking his scoring chances well, better certainly than the more cautious Nick Compton, and had he survived until lunch the day might have unfolded differently. As it was, the fillip of his dismissal put a spring in Yorkshire's step as they emerged for the afternoon session, by the end of which Middlesex were all out for 212.

Yet as Middlesex reduced Yorkshire to 52 for 4 in reply, before Jonny Bairstow and Jack Leaning laid the foundations of a recovery, the value of Compton's three-and-a-half hour 70 was emphasised. The 31-year-old, batting at No. 3, relishes the responsibility of holding his team together in difficult situations and this was a pitch on which there was always likely to be incident.

During the morning session, with Brooks at the top of his game and Steve Patterson bowling his consistently testing line from the other end, Compton went 40 minutes without scoring a run, with 25 dot balls between his seventh and eighth scoring shots. "It doesn't bother me at all to do that," he said. "As long as I'm still in, I've got a chance. You want to be scoring but I'm happy to be patient. If you go searching for it on a wicket like that you're going to give yourself a bit of trouble."

Where he feels less patient is in relation to his England career, which was so abruptly nipped in the bud on the eve of the last Ashes series and which has yet to resume. "Patience is one of my qualities as a batsman but as a person it is not my greatest asset," he said.

"I'm desperate to get back in the England side again and I feel I have the ability and the credentials to be a thorn in the side of the Australians in this Ashes if I was picked. But I have had to reset my goals a bit, concentrate on contributing for Middlesex and whatever will be, will be."

Yorkshire had to change their plans at the last minute when Ryan Sidebottom, who was to have made his comeback here after suffering a calf injury in the opening fixture, pulled up in the warm-ups, feeling all was not well. It meant Will Rhodes kept his place. Adam Lyth and Gary Ballance came back from Test duty, neatly filling the places vacated by Adil Rashid and Liam Plunkett's secondment to the England one-day squad.

Yorkshire's spin gamble paid off. It had been supposed that James Middlebrook, who took nine wickets in the match when he stood in for Rashid earlier in the season, would take that duty again but Yorkshire chanced that Glenn Maxwell, an allrounder but primarily a batsman, could fill in and how well they were rewarded.

Introduced at 108 for 4 after 45 overs, Maxwell's off-breaks claimed two key wickets in the space of three deliveries when Franklin inside-edged to short leg and John Simpson was trapped leg before, his ball keeping a touch low, at which point the Middlesex innings was collapsing at 119 for 6. Ollie Rayner went after him, hitting five of his next eight deliveries to the fence and surviving a dropped catch at short leg, but Maxwell came back with a ball that somehow squeezed through between his legs and bowled him.

Compton ultimately fell to Brooks. Required to be bolder as wickets fell around him he gave Brooks his fourth wicket when he drove at one that found the edge and was taken at third slip by Leaning at the second attempt. Patterson, reliably consistent as ever, picked up his second wicket before James Harris, whose last-wicket show of defiance with Tim Murtagh at least meant Middlesex's effort was not pointless, hooked to long leg to give Brooks his second five-wicket haul of the season.

Murtagh was back in the Middlesex side for Steven Finn, called up by England, and took two wickets as Yorkshire's day ended with something of a backs-to the-wall effort needed. Ballance, who needs some county runs more than most, struggled again, dismissed by Murtagh for 1 and Lees' run of low scores continued when he edged the same bowler to second slip.

Lyth looked in better shape, but the ball after he had hit one delicious drive past mid-off for four he followed a ball from Toby Roland-Jones that left him late and was caught, also at second slip. Andrew Gale's dismissal left Yorkshire in difficulties and much will depend on Bairstow and Leaning staying out of trouble in the first hour on the second day.