County Championship: Essex gain first-innings lead of 89 over Yorkshire

Dan Lawrence's 61 is the highest score of the match so far

England fringe Test batter Dan Lawrence hit the game's only half-century so far as Essex claimed a slender advantage at the halfway point of their County Championship Division One match with Yorkshire.

During a sunny second day at Headingley, Lawrence reached 50 for only the fifth time in all cricket during a summer beset by injury as his cautious 61 helped Essex reply to Yorkshire's first-innings 134 with 225.

No other batter from either side has yet raised their bat, though fledgling Yorkshire opener Fin Bean is closing in having reached the close unbeaten on 41 out of 87-2.

The hosts, who trail by four, fought hard with ball and then bat to stay in the hunt for only a second win in 2022. But they lost George Hill caught at slip in the day's final over.

Yorkshire enjoyed a useful morning followed by a super start to the afternoon, with Essex falling to 105-6.

Jordan Thompson claimed the first two wickets to fall and finished with 4-60, while new-ball partner Ben Coad's first of two wickets was the 200th of his first-class career.

Thompson uprooted Nick Browne's off stump with his first ball, at the start of the day's second over, before ousting Tom Westley as the first of five lbws in the first six wickets.

Steven Patterson also removed Sir Alastair Cook for the seventh time in their last seven Championship meetings, trapped in front for 23 as the former England captain played back to one which skidded through.

Essex reached lunch at 79-3 from 33 overs. But things changed quickly.

Thompson returned at the start of the afternoon and struck in his first over for the second session running as Matt Critchley was lbw.

And when Feroze Khushi and Adam Rossington were trapped lbw by deliveries which kept low from Coad in the space of six overs, Essex were six down in the 41st over and still 29 runs adrift. The Khushi wicket, Coad's first, was number 200.

However, the day's pendulum was about to swing again as Essex reasserted their authority thanks largely to their hard-hitting seamer Shane Snater, who freewheeled his side into the lead.

Snater hit well down the ground off front foot and back and pulled Thompson for six to secure a lead at 135-6 in the 47th over.

He shared 75 inside 15 overs with Lawrence, who faced 145 balls and was more than happy to play second fiddle before Snater pulled Hill's seam to midwicket, where substitute fielder Ben Mike held on for his first contribution in a Yorkshire shirt having joined from Leicestershire.

Lawrence reached his fifty shortly afterwards off 118 balls, his fifth of a frustrating summer in which the 25-year-old suffered two hamstring injuries having returned from England's late winter Test tour of the West Indies.

He batted with skill and caution in bowler-friendly conditions, though would have been frustrated to feel for one outside off just after tea and edge Hill (3-22) behind with his side 75 ahead on 209-8.

Ben Allison, for 23, was then trapped lbw by Thompson before Hill's third wicket was that of a swinging Sam Cook caught behind.

After Sam Cook removed Adam Lyth early in Yorkshire's second innings, Bean played with positivity but composure as he indicated easier batting conditions under the Headingley sunshine.

Hill also played nicely for 33, though swished his bat in frustration after falling to Jamie Porter three balls before the scheduled close.

Report supplied by the ECB Reporters' Network.