GARY Ballance’s fighting century against Middlesex at Scarborough today may not earn the Yorkshire left-hander an immediate recall to the England side but it was a valuable reminder of the gritty, durable qualities which won him his Test spot in the first place.

In company with Tim Bresnan, who made his third-successive fifty since his return from injury, Ballance took Andrew Gale’s side from 131-4, when the skipper was lbw to Toby Roland-Jones, to 257-5 when Bresnan was bowled by Tim Murtagh for 63 with the new ball.

Ballance, though, went on to make his first Championship hundred since last August, reaching the cherished mark off 202 balls with successive boundaries off Murtagh.

By the close he was 106 not out and with Will Rhodes unbeaten on 12 Yorkshire were well placed on 291-5, a score which gives Gale’s men a fair chance of posting a total around the 400 mark, something they will need if they are to dominate this game against one of their title rivals.

“Since the beginning of the summer I’ve been thinking about getting back into the England team and obviously I’d love to,” said Ballance, whose innings has so far included 16 fours. “But you have to play well and score runs for your team and that’s what I’ve not done.

“I’ve focused too hard on playing for England and now I’m just going to enjoy playing for Yorkshire and trying to win games for them. Playing for England can take care of itself.”

But Bresnan and Ballance’s excellent 126-run stand was not the only reason why the holiday crowd at North Marine Road could return to their hotels and guest houses in a contented mood this evening.

In the morning they had seen Alex Lees make his first fifty in a home County Championship match this season as Yorkshire progressed to 90-2 at lunch and there was a good argument to be made that no Yorkshire batsman played more fluently than the Halifax left-hander during his 99-ball 63.

Lees’s class was needed, too. For having opted to bat first, the home side suffered an immediate blow when Adam Lyth was caught behind by John Simpson off the first ball of the game when his attempted withdrawal of the bat merely edged a catch to wicketkeeper John Simpson.

That gave Murtagh the first of his three wickets on a day when he comfortably out bowled England’s Steven Finn.

However, Lees and Kane Williamson responded to this setback in fine style by putting on 85 in 25 overs before Williamson departed for 28 in similar fashion to Lyth when a ball from James Franklin just caught the edge of his bat when he was tempting to let the ball go.

By that stage, however, Lees had reached his 50 off 70 balls with a straight six off Ollie Rayner, the ball being caught by a spectator in the Peasholm Park stand, and the left-hander swept the spinner for another maximum two overs later.

Just when he seemed set to make a major score, however, Lees was caught at second slip by Rayner off Murtagh, one of three wickets taken by the Middlesex seamer. Eight overs later Gale’s departure deepened the crowd’s anxieties but such worries were soon allayed by Bresnan’s unfussy style and Ballance’s steel.