Yorkshire completed a rousing ten-wicket victory over Northamptonshire at Headingley yesterday to continue a great start to the season which has seen them win their last six matches in all competitions.

With storm clouds gathering, openers Matthew Wood and Phil Jaques thrashed 72 in half-an-hour after lunch to race them to their 129 target and strengthen their Championship challenge.

It was Yorkshire's third consecutive home victory against Northants and it left them in great heart for tomorrow's Championship game with Leicestershire at Grace Road when they will field an unchanged team.

Northants effectively had eight down at the start of the final day because wicketkeeper, Gerard Brophy, broke a finger on Saturday and could not bat in the second innings, but casual bowling by Yorkshire prolonged the visitors' innings.

Johann Louw and Steffan Jones took their eighth wicket stand to 37 before Louw fell lbw to Deon Kruis but Jones then added a frustrating 41 with last man Jason Brown. That took the lead into three figures and Jones, wasting few scoring opportunities, reached his half-century off 59 balls.

Kruis and Tim Bresnan each took three wickets and Kruis has now captured 14 wickets at 12.07 runs apiece in his first two Championship matches at Headingley since joining Yorkshire at the start of the season.

Wood and Jaques went for the runs from the word go and both enjoyed escapes before the morning session was finished.

Everything else came off the middle of the bat, however, and the 50 arrived in only the tenth over, Yorkshire going in to lunch on 57 without loss.

They continued the onslaught after lunch with the winning boundary came from Jaques who ended unbeaten on 70 to give him 246 runs from the match for once out. Jaques plundered his runs off 60 balls with 12 fours while Wood had six fours and three sixes in his 56 off 61 deliveries.

A delighted David Byas, Yorkshire's director of cricket, said after the match: "I think this was a good all-round performance, particularly after losing the toss on a good batting pitch.

"We did extremely well to bowl them out for 281 in the first innings and it was a game in which everyone contributed.

"Kruis started off very well and Jaques' 176 was a wonderful innings."