Yorkshire’s batsmen made a solid start on the opening morning of their LV= County Championship match against Middlesex at Lord’s.

Despite losing Adam Lyth, who was caught low down by first slip Neil Dexter off the bowling of Tim Murtagh for 11, Andrew Gale’s team went into lunch on 51-1 after 20 overs.

That represents a considerable achievement for the visitors in cloudy, bowler-friendly conditions.

Particularly impressive was the composed batting of Alex Lees, who was 21 not out at the interval, with Phil Jaques unbeaten on nine.

There was a half-hour break for rain after 4.3 overs and on the resumption both Murtagh and Corey Collymore induced plenty of playing and missing from the batsmen.