JASON Gillespie hailed three-wicket seamer Jack Brooks and admitted he was happy with Yorkshire’s day one performance against Worcestershire as they just edged ahead at New Road today.

The opening day of the new county season was far from a walk in the park for the champions even though they reduced the hosts to 11-2 inside eight overs after losing the toss.

England’s Moeen Ali and centurion Tom Fell shared 118 for the third-wicket either side of lunch to fashion a recovery and give the Division One newcomers a platform.

Thankfully for Yorkshire, Tim Bresnan sparked a fightback and finished with three wickets to match Brooks, who claimed 3-38 from 16 overs.

When Worcester resume this morning, they will be 264-8 from 82 overs on a dry pitch which is expected to take turn later in the match to suit their spin threat of Moeen and Sri Lanka’s Sachithra Senanayake.

Brooks took the opening two wickets before adding a third before tea. He had Richard Oliver caught behind, Daryl Mitchell caught fending to second slip and Tom Kohler-Cadmore bowled off an inside edge pulling.

"I thought Brooksy was absolutely brilliant,” said coach Gillespie. “He ran in, he bowled quick and had a really good line and length.

“He's spoken about wanting to hit his spell hard and not just ease into it. That's something he's really worked hard on.

“Basically, he doesn't want any warm-up balls, he wants to be straight into it having an impact. I think he did that really well.

"I think the pitch, outfield, it's all a bit slowish, so batters had to work hard for their runs and bowlers have had to work hard to get anything out of the pitch. It's just been a patience game really.

"We've had some periods, maybe a little 20 minutes or half-an-hour before lunch and then 10 or 15 minutes afterwards, where we didn't quite get it right. Outside of that, I've been pretty happy.”

There is certainly room for improvement for Yorkshire. Three catches went down, while they leaked 43 runs in the first ten overs after lunch to Moeen (62) and Fell.

Bresnan’s switch from the New Road to the Diglis End, however, proved crucial.

He had Moeen and Fell (114) both caught behind by Andrew Hodd, the latter to a superb one-hander down leg. He also trapped Alex Gidman lbw.