Stubborn Byas leads Yorkshire to useful lead over Northants

David Byas was at his resilient best to earn Division One leaders Yorkshire a valuable 56-run advantage over Northamptonshire on another hot and humid day at Wantage Road.

The visitors' skipper hit an unbeaten 110 in five hours, and received excellent support from Ryan Sidebottom (20) as Yorkshire rallied strongly from 225-8 to 309 all out. Northants closed on 26-1 in their second innings, still 30 runs adrift.

On a pitch offering some help to the spinners, Yorkshire ran into trouble against Jason Brown and Graeme Swann with only opener Matthew Wood (55) and Darren Lehmann (29) prospering for long.

The ever-dangerous Lehmann fell to a superb throw from Brown on the third man boundary as he looked for a risky second run, and although Byas was batting with skill and patience Northants - bottom of the table - were bowling themselves into a promising position.

But Sidebottom dug in with Byas, and the pair added 78 in 25 overs to wrest the initiative and secure a third bonus point. Byas completed a well-deserved century - his second of the season and 26th for the county - off 241 balls with 14 fours, displaying a wider range of attacking strokes as his innings progressed.

Paul Taylor eventually mopped up the tail, but Sidebottom still enjoyed the last laugh as he had Adrian Rollins taken by Scott Richardson in the slips with his first ball to leave Northants firmly on the back foot at the close.