County Championship: Yorkshire openers Adam Lyth & Fin Bean take control at Worcester

Afternoon rain meant a break of three hour and 50 minutes at New Road

Yorkshire openers Adam Lyth and Fin Bean put on an unbroken 154 for the first wicket in the 33.3 overs of play possible on day one against Worcestershire.

The visitors responded well to being put into bat as 35-year-old Lyth and 21-year-old Bean racked up their best stand in their nine matches together as an opening partnership.

Making three changes from the team that drew with Derbyshire in the Pears' previous Championship game a fortnight ago, Worcestershire recalled left-armer Ben Gibbon to replace India paceman, Navdeep Saini, who managed just one of his scheduled four-match stay after being called up by his country.

Also without England absentee Josh Tongue and fellow Nottinghamshire-bound paceman Dillon Pennington, who was nursing a reported knee injury, the Pears recalled Adam Finch too.

But the home attack failed to make a breakthrough, not helped by the catching in their slip cordon.

Adam Lyth and Fin Bean racked up their highest stand in their nine Championship matches opening together

Bean was dropped twice, at second slip and then again in the gully, while Jack Haynes, fit again after a knee injury, missed Lyth at first slip.

But, aside from that, it was untroubled progress for the Tykes as Lyth and Bean put on the best Yorkshire opening partnership since Tom Kohler-Cadmore and Shaun Marsh shared 162 for the first wicket against Surrey at The Oval in September 2017.

Finch went for 48 off just five overs, while Yorkshire old boy Matthew Waite was comfortably the best performer in the home attack, taking 0-21 off 10, including two of those dropped catches.

But mostly it was a day of light rain, interruptions and a lot of work for the groundstaff, from the moment they all went off 15 minutes after lunch until coming back on at 17:45 BST to get in 21 more balls bowled before the weather had the final say.

The Pears had stand-in skipper Jake Libby in charge for the second game running, in place of missing captain Brett D'Oliveira

After missing through illness for the Pears' last game, the home draw with Derbyshire, D'Oliveira was this time absent as his wife is due any day with their second child.