Seamers strike early as Yorkshire tighten grip at Ageas Bowl

Opening bowlers Duanne Olivier and Ben Coad continued Yorkshire's dominance in their Specsavers County Championship match with Hampshire at the Ageas Bowl - after Gary Ballance had top-scored with 148, Hampshire's James Vince and Joe Weatherley both departed inside the first six overs to leave Hampshire 11 for 2, after Yorkshire had declared having scored a mammoth 554.

Hampshire had been given 26 overs to starve out Coad, Olivier and co, but struggled against good quality seam movement. Having watched their Hampshire counterparts labour on a very slow pancake of a wicket, Coad and Olivier extracted more out of the surface.

Firstly, Vince, who has promoted himself to the top of the innings with the hope of earning an Ashes spot, was caught by Tom Kohler-Cadmore at first slip while attempting a block in the fifth over.

An over later and Weatherley was on the receiving end of South African fast bowler Olivier's fierce chest-high bouncer - with the academy graduate guiding an edge behind.

Aiden Markram and Sam Northeast steadied the ship in gloomy conditions, but the South African international fell after an enterprising 45 to the part-time off-spin of Jack Leaning when he picked out Ballance at deep midwicket - leaving Hampshire 74 for 3 at stumps.

Yorkshire had piled on 554 runs over five sessions with five players managing to pass a half-century - something the county hadn't managed since 2014.

Ballance and Joe Root had placed the visitors into a strong position on day one having put on 182 for the third wicket, while Adam Lyth also reached fifty.

Root had fallen for six the previous evening, while Ballance had reached an unbeaten 120 overnight and continued in a similarly modest style.

He and night-watchman Steven Patterson added 80 runs for the fourth wicket, although the latter was given a life when he was dropped by Markram running back from first slip.

Ballance has an impeccable Ageas Bowl record and passed 1,000 first class runs at the ground when he reached 141.

But he departed having added seven more runs when Gareth Berg snared him with a quality bouncer - which he glanced behind while attempting to evade.

Berg, who had gone wicketless in the season opener against Essex, then added a second in the space of four overs as Patterson slashed to Liam Dawson at point.

Runs continued to trump wickets as Kohler-Cadmore and Leaning pushed the score through the 400 mark.

Kohler-Cadmore departed for 41 when he was lbw to the hard-working Liam Dawson, but Leaning continued to a half century - brought up in 116 balls.

Jonny Tattersall, who made his debut in the corresponding fixture last year, joined Leaning at the crease and added a further 95 for the seventh wicket.

Despite Yorkshire continuing to eke out runs, they didn't come at a great rate - with the innings hovering around 3.3 runs per over throughout.

Tattersall, who was dropped on 23 by legside boundary rider Fidel Edwards, scored his 500th first-class run when he reached six before scoring his half century in 79 balls.

Dawson was again rewarded for toiling through 60 overs, a record in an innings on this ground, when he found a leading edge off Tattersall's bat - with Vince completing the catch at cover.

Dawson ended with analysis of three for 184 from his epic vigil with the ball.

Yorkshire skipper Steven Patterson called his batsmen in soon after to declare on 554 for seven, with Leaning left on 77 not out, before his bowlers made early breakthroughs.