Matthew Hoggard maintained his fine start to the season by taking a wicket with his tenth ball yesterday evening as Yorkshire continued their stirring recovery. Having been reduced to 111 for five earlier in the day, the home side were revived by an unbeaten 104 from Jacques Rudolph, who carried them to 299. Hoggard, who took eight wickets against Hampshire last week, trapped Will Jefferson leg-before to build on Rudolph's good work.

The difficulties experienced by Yorkshire's batsmen earlier in the day had largely been inflicted by Stuart Broad's spell of three wickets in 16 balls. The first of these was the prize scalp of Michael Vaughan, who had added 17 painstaking runs to his overnight 25.

Playing watchfully on a slow pitch, Vaughan's one moment of indulgence came when he pulled Broad nonchalantly for six into the East Stand from just short of a length. In Broad's next over, Vaughan played the same stroke, but a man had now been posted on the square-leg boundary and the England captain picked him out.

Rudolph then diligently set about his rescue mission After adding 106 for the sixth wicket with Gerard Brophy, he reached his hundred from 246 balls with seven fours.

He had plenty of luck against Ryan Sidebottom, who tormented him outside the off stump with the second new ball. Rudolph played and missed umpteen times and Sidebottom, at the end of his follow-through, could only stand are stare at the batsman, hands on his hips in exasperation. In return, Rudolph could only smile.

His grin was broader still when he eased Mark Ealham through the off-side to reach his century. After making four hundreds in his first season at the club last year, the South African has quickly made himself Yorkshire’s most reliable batsman.

In his first championship appearance of the season, Sidebottom had toiled through 24 overs without taking a wicket. Either side of his three-wicket burst, Broad also had a testing day, although if Brophy had been caught by Graeme Swann when he had made just six, Nottinghamshire would have been in a powerful position.

Swann eventually atoned, bowling Brophy out of Sidebottom’s footmarks, but by that time Brophy had made 63 and Yorkshire’s recovery was well underway.

Scoreboard

Yorkshire: First Innings (overnight 51-1)

M P Vaughan c Patel b Broad 42

A McGrath c Read b Shreck 36

J A Rudolph not out 104

A W Gale lbw b Broad 4

A U Rashid c Jefferson b Broad 4

G L Brophy b Swann 63

T T Bresnan run out 18

M Morkel lbw b Swann 0

*D Gough b Swann 3

M J Hoggard lbw b Swann 12

Extras (lb 4) 4

Total (121.5 overs) 299

Fall of wickets: 1-33, 2-78, 3-96, 4-103, 5-111, 6-217, 7-269, 8-271, 9-275.

Bowling: Sidebottom 24-12-45-0; Shreck 33-10-78-1; Broad 25-5-95-3; Ealham 24-7-52-1; Swann 15.5-4-25-4.

Nottinghamshire: First Innings

W I Jefferson lbw b Hoggard 0

M J Wood not out 0

Total (1 wkt, 2.4 overs) 0

M A Wagh, A C Voges, S R Patel, *C M W Read, M A Ealham, S C J Broad, G P Swann, R J Sidebottom, and C E Shreck to bat.

Fall of wicket: 1-0.

Bowling: Hoggard 1.4-1-0-1; M Morkel 1-1-0-0.

Umpires: S A Garratt and P J Hartley.

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