DOM Bess top-scored with 56 as he battled against the tide during the opening day of Yorkshire’s County Championship fixture with Northamptonshire at Emerald Headingley.

Bess came to the crease with Yorkshire at 80-5 during the early stages of the afternoon having been invited to bat first on a day which saw 19 overs lost to bad light and rain.

The unbeaten White Rose were bowled out for 206 inside the final hour as South African overseas quick Wayne Parnell starred with 5-64.

Northants then closed on 36-0 from 11 overs.

Ben Sanderson bowled Adam Lyth with the first ball of the match to halt the Yorkshire opener’s bid to become the first English batsman to reach 500 Championship runs in 2021.

But Bess, from number seven, was at least able to boost the total beyond 200 with 10 fours in 95 balls.

The White Rose will be frustrated at more top order issues, having been bowled out for 150 at the start of last week’s win at Sussex.

Only time will tell whether this score is competitive. If the conditions which favoured the Northants bowlers remain, it could yet prove to be so.

Ricardo Vasconcelos, deputising for injured Adam Rossington as captain and wicketkeeper, opted to bowl first upon winning the toss under a bright Headingley sky.

And he was rewarded immediately as Lyth, with 488 runs already to his name and behind only Durham’s South African David Bedingham, attempted to leave alone former White Rose seamer Sanderson and was bowled off his pad.

During a morning curtailed by bad light at 12.30pm, Northants beat the bat regularly but also offered scoring opportunities for Tom Kohler-Cadmore, who had a season’s best 42 out of 67-2 from 21.3 overs.

Will Fraine, a replacement for the rested Joe Root, was the other morning wicket - lbw playing to leg against experienced seamer Gareth Berg for 11.

Only three balls were bowled between 12.30pm and 2.50pm because of the weather.

Yorkshire then encountered issues early in the delayed afternoon.

They slipped from 76-2 in the 24th over to 80-5 after 27, losing Gary Ballance, Harry Brook and Kohler-Cadmore.

Parnell had Ballance caught at first slip by Ben Curran via a rebound off Rob Keogh’s right hand at second, before trapping Brook lbw.

Berg then bowled Kohler-Cadmore, before Bess and Jonny Tattersall shared a careful 57-run partnership for the sixth wicket either side of tea.

Wicketkeeper Tattersall initially led the way, as he posted 26, before Bess overtook him.

Their partnership was broken by Sanderson when he had Tattersall caught at third slip in the 47th over, leaving Yorkshire at 137-6.

As Bess moved towards his half-century, Parnell claimed his third and fourth wickets to undermine the hosts’ hopes of a batting bonus point.

He bowled Jordan Thompson for 17 - 160-7 in the 56th over - and had former Northants all-rounder David Willey (12) caught behind as the score fell to 186-8 in the 60th.

Bess reached his fifty off 92 balls before miscuing a pull off Berg (3-32) to mid-wicket.

And Parnell wrapped up the innings in the next over - the 64th - when he had compatriot Duanne Olivier caught behind.

Vasconcelos later helped a Thompson short ball over backward square-leg for six as he began the Northants reply brightly. He will begin day two on 21 not out.