Yorkshire took control of their latest County Championship match against Gloucestershire during today’s opening day at Scarborough despite playing some unconvincing cricket.

To bowl the visitors out for 215 on a decent pitch with only two frontline seamers after losing the toss is a good effort as they bid to boost their promotion hopes.

But having reduced the score to 9-4 inside the first ten overs, Hamish Marshall’s side were let off the hook.

Then, after Will Gidman got rid of Adam Lyth two balls into the hosts’ first innings, his team-mates dropped three catches inside the opening three overs.

Joe Root and captain Andrew Gale – 24 and 23 not out respectively – then steadied the ship from 16-2 to close on 61-2 from 17 overs.

Yorkshire have had a problem with removing the tail for some time, and this was no different as swing proved a danger.

After a 65-run stand for the fifth wicket between Iain Cockbain and all-rounder Gidman (47), Jack Taylor and Jon Batty (25) added 56 for the eighth inside 14 overs before Anthony Ireland and Liam Norwell added 36 inside ten for the last wicket.

Gloucestershire’s recovery was sparked by Taylor and Batty as they recovered the score from 107-7 in the early afternoon, with Taylor scoring 49 of the 56 runs in the partnership.

Steve Patterson (3-35 from 17), Moin Ashraf and Azeem Rafiq took three wickets after Ryan Sidebottom woke up with a bad back and had to be left out.

It meant that Anthony McGrath and the two spinners of Rafiq and Adil Rashid had to share the rest of the work.

The shot selection of the majority of Gloucester’s batsmen was questionable, sparked by Benny Howell shouldering arms to Patterson in the fifth over.

Yorkshire’s innings then began in similarly breathless fashion to Gloucester’s.

After Lyth was caught behind for a duck, Phil Jaques was dropped once and Root twice, which meant the score could have been 1-4.

Instead they were two down shortly afterwards when Jaques edged Gidman behind. Root, capped before play alongside Gary Ballance, and Gale then added an unbroken 45 before close.