Yorkshire had slumped to 34 for four when Darren Lehmann and Craig White joined forces in a record-breaking stand against Kent at Canterbury yesterday on the opening day of their Liverpool Victoria Champ-ionship match.

The brothers-in-law amassed 229 together in 71 overs to post the county's highest fifth- wicket partnership in games between the two sides.

And although captain White then departed for a solid 79, there was no stopping Lehmann, who seems to produce a gem in every innings he plays at the moment.

The Australian had battered an unbeaten 176 out of 312 for five, leaving him to make a further 16 today to complete 1,000 Championship runs against his favourite county.

Lehmann's sublime innings, which included 22 fours, comes on the back of consecutive scores of 150, 64 and 87.

He is still in only his fifth Championship knock of the season and has already scored 483 runs, taking his current average to a phenomenal 120.75 and proving that, at 36, his powers are as great as ever.

When Lehmann's Yorkshire career is over and that could be at the end of this season he will look back with particular affection on his battles with Kent.

This was his third and highest century against the county and on his last appearance at Canterbury four years ago he won the Walter Lawrence Trophy for thumping the fastest ton of the season off 89 balls.

Yet there was nothing flash about this latest innings because the first three in the order had all departed when he came in at a perilous 26 for three.

The fall of Michael Lumb eight runs later left Yorkshire in danger of disintegration after White had maintained his 100 per cent winning record with the toss this season.

Once the early moisture in the air had burned away, the swing that had been there for the pacemen became less of a threat and Lehmann and White saw Yorkshire safely through to lunch before batting throughout the next session.

For a while after the interval, White middled the ball even better than his partner, who had one or two edges without ever being in serious danger of getting out.

After White had completed his first 50 of the season, Lehmann cantered to his century off 166 deliveries with a dozen boundaries.

Lehmann and Anthony McGrath already hold the record third-wicket stand against Kent of 195.

When Lehmann and White had moved their stand beyond 185, they had beaten Geoff Boycott and Kevin Sharp's best for the fifth wicket made at Tunbridge Wells in 1984.

White had arrived at the crease at 12.15pm and it was 5.30pm when he was finally out, bowled off his pads by Darren Stevens after facing 197 balls and striking five fours, the stand also being Yorkshire's fifth highest against any county for the fifth wicket.

But Lehmann continued to dominate Kent's jaded attack and by the close he and Tim Bresnan had added 49.

This left Yorkshire in with a good chance of securing maximum batting bonus points for the first time this season.