Haseeb Hameed (114) made his third hundred of the summer to put Lancashire in a strong position in Roses clash at Old Trafford, but Yorkshire recovered with six wickets in the evening session to end the opening day in the ascendancy.
The Bolton-born opening batsman passed fifty for the ninth time this season, his fourth consecutive score of fifty or more, before registering his second century of 2016 at Old Trafford. The teenage batsman continues to turn heads with his impressive temperament at the crease, sharing a 152-run stand with Luke Procter (79) for the second wicket to give Lancashire a sturdy platform to try and get ahead of the two-time reigning champions.
Their partnership allowed Lancashire to negate a threatening bowling attack, packed with international talent past and present, with the duo registering their third hundred-partnership in four attempts since their stand in the second innings at Southport against Durham, which was followed by another solid partnership at Hampshire last week.
However, Lancashire closed on 299/7 after Yorkshire fought back from the Hameed-Procter partnership, with the Tykes taking six wickets for 61 runs - including both of the established batsman in the space of 12 balls - to give the Red Rose a disappointing conclusion to what had largely been a dominant day with the bat after winning the toss.
Hameed was initially accompanied by Tom Smith (46) and the opening stand survived the entire first session to send Lancashire to lunch on 83/0. Ryan Sidebottom's opening spell offered Yorkshire their best chance of making a breakthrough in the morning session, causing Smith one or two problems outside the off-stump in the first hour without ever forcing an edge.
Surviving a testing first hour from Sidebottom and Jack Brooks allowed the opening stand to reach a fifty-partnership in 136 deliveries, with both Smith and Hameed injecting a degree of impetus thereafter. Smith's reverse-sweep set the tone for a miserable day for leg-spinner Adil Rashid (0-93), one of eight boundaries to be hit by the Lancashire opening batsman, who fell shortly after lunch to miss out on a half-century.
Smith fell in the fifth over after the interval when he was trapped lbw by Sidebottom (2-34), as he failed to add to his lunchtime score of 46 after adding 86 runs for the opening stand with Hameed. For the next 38 overs, Hameed and Procter progressed in masterful fashion against one of the best bowling attacks in the country.
Procter in particular played with a superb tempo, hitting Bresnan for three fours in the same over to make a racing start to his innings. Hameed supported his efforts nicely by reaching his ninth fifty of the season in red-ball cricket in 124 balls, while Procter continued to find the boundary with alarming regularity from Yorkshire's point of view.
Hameed then took his turn to find the ropes to the frustration of the Yorkshire bowlers, welcoming Brooks back into the attack with a boundary through the leg-side. He followed that up with three boundaries off Rashid in the same over, twice driving the spinner straight down the ground in succession, before clipping him to mid-wicket to move to 84.
Procter advanced to his fourth half-century of the season in 92 deliveries, bringing up this milestone with a lovely pull shot for his ninth four, as well as the hundred-partnership at a brisk pace of 161 balls. It was the third time in four attempts that these two had shared a century stand and it gave Lancashire a tremendous platform at tea with the score at 187/1.
However, the loss of six wickets for 61 runs saw Lancashire falter from 238/1 to 299/7 by stumps, with the loss of Hameed and Procter in quick succession commencing a damaging spell for the hosts. Hameed went to his third century of the season in 189 balls - with his 14th boundary taking him to three figures - but Lancashire went on to squander the platform established by the second-wicket partnership.
Procter was first to depart for 79 after edging an attempted drive off Bresnan (2-58) behind to Andrew Hodd and Hameed fell 12 balls later - also to Bresnan - when he top-edged an attempted pull shot back to the bowler to fall for 114, nine runs short of achieving a new career-best score. Steven Croft (13) then made it three wickets for 30 runs when the Lancashire captain was well caught by Bresnan at first slip off Brooks (3-51).
Liam Livingstone followed for a ten-ball duck when he flashed outside the off-stump and edged Sidebottom behind to Hodd at 279/5 and the decision to send Simon Kerrigan (2) in as nightwatchman against the new ball proved to be bad one for Lancashire when he edged to Hodd once more, as Brooks took the first of two quick wickets at the death on the first day.
Alviro Petersen (32) looked to be negotiating the renewed optimism that was coursing through the Yorkshire bowling attack with relative ease but, with three balls left in the day, the South-African played-on attempting to shoulder arms to Brooks, as Lancashire closed on 299/7.
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