Yorkshire's progress was interrupted at New Road yesterday by a defiant innings from Worcestershire's acting captain Gareth Batty, the Bradford-born all-rounder's brave knock of 57 helping take them to 345 all out.

Batty, leading Worcestershire while Vikram Solanki is with the England one-day squad, came to the crease at 187 for five after three wickets had tumbled for nine runs in four overs.

He calmly took charge with a mixture of attacking blows and sound defensive play and took a liking to fellow off-spinner, Richard Dawson.

He got off the mark with a big six over mid-wicket from the slow bowler and added two more on his way to his half-century off only 55 balls with five other boundaries. But for Batty's intervention, Yorkshire might well have completed their fightback, which came after Steven Davies and Stephen Moore had justified Worcestershire's decision to bat first by rattling up 98 in 20 overs for the first wicket.

The stand was dominated by 19-year-old Davies, who punished Deon Kruis for bowling too short with five early boundaries through the off-side and he raced to his maiden 50 from 53 balls.

He then fell for 59 with 11 fours in a fine second spell from Matthew Hoggard. The England paceman, in his last Championship outing before the Ashes series, dug one in and Davies edged a fast two-handed catch to Matthew Wood at second slip.

It was a good dismissal but not as important as the one which followed it as Hoggard made Graeme Hick pay for striking him for two boundaries by getting him snapped up by Wood to register his 200th first-class victim for Yorkshire.

Moore continued to bat patiently, putting on 58 with Ben Smith to take Worcestershire to 178 for two, before he was out caught behind off the first ball of a new spell from Dawson, his well-structured 74 coming off 131 balls and containing 11 fours.

Kruis, exploiting uneven bounce from the New Road end, flattened Zander de Bruin's leg-stump and Smith departed when he edged Dawson and was beautifully caught left-handed at slip by Phil Jaques.

Batty joined Daryl Mitchell in a sixth-wicket stand of 60 but Mitchell was almost out before he had scored, fending off a lifter from Kruis just wide of Joe Sayers' reach at short leg.

Mitchell eventually went to an unpleasant ball from Hoggard which reared up and deflected into Ismail Dawood's gloves, but Batty found another reliable partner in Kabir Ali and they had taken Worcestershire to 302 with a 55 stand when Batty sliced a forcing shot at Kruis to Dawson.

James Pipe becoming Richard Pyrah's first Championship victim when he pulled him to Dawson on the mid-wicket boundary. Matt Mason hooked Tim Bresnan to Hoggard and the innings was wrapped up when Kabir Ali skied Bresnan to Wood for 57 from 85 balls.