Yorkshire made a magnificent start to their Benson and Hedges Cup semi-final match at Headingley today, reducing Essex to 33 for three at one stage after Chris Silverwood had captured a wicket with the very first ball of the game.

But captain Nasser Hussain and Ronnie Irani hit back hard with a fourth wicket stand which rushed Essex into three figures by the 22nd over and left Yorkshire in need of another breakthrough.

Left-arm paceman Ryan Sidebottom came in for his B&H debut, replacing Darren Gough who broke a finger while batting in the first Test at Edgbaston last Friday.

It was a big day, also, for Sidebottom's fellow left-armer, Paul Hutchison, who was celebrating his 21st birthday.

When the match got under way there were no bails on the stumps, the wind being too strong for them to stay in place.

Silverwood, operating from the Kirkstall Lane end, rapped Darren Robinson on the pads with his first delivery and umpire Barrie Leadbeater had no hesitation in raising his finger to give him out lbw.

It was the perfect start for Yorkshire and Silverwood struck again in his third over which proved to be quite eventful. Australian Stuart Law, one of Essex's danger men, edged just short of second slip before whipping the next ball away strongly for four, but in trying to repeat the shot he was beautifully caught at square leg by Bradley Parker who calmly swooped to hold the ball two-handed.

Robert Rollins was off the mark with a powerful legside boundary off Silverwood and at 25 Hussain was flattened in a collision with wicketkeeper Richard Blakey but neither player suffered any serious damage.

Hussain's response was a fierce cut for four and with Rollins picking up Paul Hutchison from the crease and smacking him through mid-wicket runs were coming at a rapid rate.

But Rollins was too adventurous too early and he swivelled round at Hutchison to hit him into the waiting hands of Gavin Hamilton at long leg.

With the wind easing down, the bails were put on at 37 for three and they did not look like coming off for a while as Hussain and Irani improved Essex's situation with aggressive strokeplay of a generally high quality.

Having bowled five overs and taken two for 20, Silverwood was replaced by Hamilton and Craig White. Both bowlers were punished, however, by the increasingly confident batsmen, Irani producing a flashing cover drive off Hamilton to raise the 50.

Control of the match was slipping away when Sidebottom managed to break the stand after it had reached 83 in 18 overs. Iranie poked at a ball which was leaving him outside off stump and he edged a catch to Blakey, making Essex 116 for four.

Then Hussain completed his half century off 78 balls with six fours.

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