The lead honours on a fine day for the Irish must go to the Dubliner, Ed Joyce, who, in his first championship encounter with the vagaries of Headingley, offered a wonderfully adept innings to post 100 unbeaten runs while his new Sussex colleagues mustered only 97 more between them.
More dashing was Jacques Rudolph’s riposte, in less demanding conditions, of a fifty from 78 balls as the opener built upon Yorkshire’s slender first-innings lead of eight runs.
Catching the mood, Michael Vaughan then cast his travails aside for 70 minutes at least, flicking and pulling Jason Lewry for two sixes over square leg in three balls as he raced to 39. Four overs from the close, however, advancing to cut, Vaughan sliced to backward point.
But the most heartening intervention of all came from Azeem Rafiq, the England Under-19 off spinner, who claimed two wickets in his first 18 balls of first-class cricket and continued to three for 34 either side of lunch.
Halting a 56-run recovery from 94 for six by bowling Robin Martin-Jenkins for 33 with one that fizzed through low, Rafiq also had Ollie Rayner and Corey Collymore caught at short leg, the latter from a quicker ball that spat from a length as Joyce ran out of partners.
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A year ago, Rafiq became the youngest player, at 17 years and 121 days, to appear in the Twenty20 Cup. It was a distinction sadly soon overwhelmed by the fact that Yorkshire had failed to register him properly, an error that cost them a place in the quarter-finals.
Coming to Britain from Pakistan aged 10, Rafiq was deemed ineligible despite an education at Martyn Moxon’s old school, a cricket upbringing with Dickie Bird’s old club, Barnsley, and having captained England at under-15 and under-17 levels. Happily, his British citizenship was confirmed last winter and the eager, affectionate applause that greeted his success was a neat counterpoint, perhaps, to political developments in Yorkshire the previous night.
Yorkshire supporters were also delighted by their side’s batting later. Eschewing a safety-first approach, Rudolph and Vaughan plundered 83 runs from 17 overs to set up the chance of a declaration around lunch today.
Yorkshire: First Innings 225 (G L Brophy 75 not out; C D Collymore 4 for 68)
Second Innings
J A Rudolph not out 86
J J Sayers lbw b Collymore 15
M P Vaughan c Prior b D R Smith 39
*A McGrath not out 1
Extras (b 5, lb 3, w 1, nb 2) 11
Total (2 wkts, 44 overs) 152
Fall of wickets: 1-67, 2-150.
Bowling: Lewry 7-2-26-0; Collymore 12-2-38-1; Rayner 14-4-41-0; D R Smith 11-1-39-1.
Sussex: First Innings
*M H Yardy lbw b Kruis 8
M A Thornely lbw b Naved 8
E C Joyce not out 100
M W Goodwin c Sayers b McGrath 0
†M J Prior c Sayers b Kruis 20
A J Hodd lbw b Bresnan 1
D R Smith c Kruis b Bresnan 0
R S C Martin-Jenkins b Rafiq 33
O P Rayner c Gale b Rafiq 4
C D Collymore c Gale b Rafiq 11
J D Lewry b Naved 12
Extras (b 1, lb 13, w 2, nb 4) 20
Total (82.3 overs) 217
Fall of wickets: 1-9, 2-34, 3-43, 4-89, 5-90, 6-94, 7-150, 8-162, 9-192.
Bowling: Bresnan 24-9-44-2; Kruis 17-7-36-2; Naved 19.3-3-59-2; McGrath 9-3-26-1; Rafiq 11-0-34-3; Wainwright 2-0-4-0.
Umpires: T E Jesty and R T Robinson.