Yorkshire’s seamers made the most of helpful conditions to dismiss Middlesex for 123 before lunch on the second morning of their LV= County Championship match at Lord’s.

Led by Ryan Sidebottom, whose spell of 9-5-11-3 removed Neil Dexter, Joe Denly and Eoin Morgan – the latter for 33 to a superb second-slip catch by Adam Lyth – the Yorkshire attack wrested the game away from the home batsmen, many of whose techniques were exposed against a ball which nipped around.

Dexter’s defensive push only edged the ball to Andy Hodd in the fourth over of the morning, Denly was beaten by one which swung back in to trap him lbw and Morgan’s full-blooded drive nicked the ball high above Lyth’s head, only for him to take the catch with two hands.

That left Middlesex on 83-6 and Liam Plunkett then removed the middle stump of both John Simpson and Tim Murtagh for single-figure scores.

Those dismissals sandwiched the departure of Ollie Rayner, who lost his off pole when he played down the wrong line to Jack Brooks.

An almost perfect morning for Joe Root and his men was completed on the stroke of lunch when Steven Finn meekly tapped Steve Patterson straight into the hands of Plunkett at short mid-off.

That gave Yorkshire a useful 55-run lead going into the fifth session of the Division One game.