Bairstow the shaft of light amid gloom

Jonny Bairstow is, by his own admission, in the form of his life, and for Yorkshire's hopes of retaining the County Championship it is just as well.

On a day of dramatic contrasts, his outstanding 108 from 139 balls was as cloudless and uncomplicated as the late-evening sunshine that replaced the torrential thunderstorm that struck midway through the afternoon session.

With 15 fours, each as emphatic as the next, he provided ballast and acceleration in equal measure as, between them, the other 11 wickets that fell on the first day at Edgbaston mustered 105 runs from 262 deliveries.

Chris Wright led the line for Warwickshire with 5 for 40 in 16.2 overs before Ryan Sidebottom, with a pair of those prodigious inswingers that have so long been his trademark, struck back with a vengeance for Yorkshire with two scalps in the first three balls of Warwickshire's reply.

Varun Chopra, the Warwickshire captain, fell shouldering arms for a first-ball duck, a scalp that Bairstow was even able to claim as his own, after predicting to his team-mates that the wicket was about to fall. His soothsaying will, he later claimed, cost him a round of drinks in the bar, but that is nothing compared to the tab that his team-mates owe him for digging them out of a hole.

There was nothing especially threatening in the conditions when Andrew Gale won the toss for Yorkshire and chose to bat. But with Oliver Hannon-Dalby and Wright finding prodigious movement from the outset, survival appeared to be a complicated business.

Bairstow arrived in the 12th over of the day with his team already in considerable strife at 26 for 3. Wright had claimed both of the first two wickets to fall; Will Rhodes, who was trapped on the crease by an inducker and bowled for 10, and Jack Leaning, who squirted a thick edge to Jeetan Patel at third slip having flashed the first ball of the same over through the cordon for his only scoring shot.

Hannon-Dalby, who found extravagant new-ball movement in the early cloud cover, was then rewarded for his perseverance as Gale, the Yorkshire captain, flashed a lifter to Chopra at first slip for 1.

Though the introduction of Boyd Rankin offered temporary respite as his ten overs were dispatched for 50 runs, the spin of Jeetan Patel was a misleading panacea. Alex Lees had seen off the new ball with some patience, but lost the plot in Patel's first over as he gave the offie the charge and was stumped by the length of the A38(M).

Aaron Finch provided Bairstow with the closest thing to a sidekick, as he finished up as Yorkshire's second-highest scorer with 28, an innings that seemed forever one shot away from either ruin or a breakthrough. Rikki Clarke ensured it was the former by trapping him lbw to end a fifth-wicket stand of 74, whereupon Tim Bresnan, whose last partnership with Bairstow had been worth a cool 366 up at Chester-le-Street, became Clarke's second victim, well caught by the stand-in keeper, Peter McKay, who was a late replacement after Tim Ambrose was struck down by a stomach complaint.

The 20-year-old McKay did spill the one clear-cut opportunity that Bairstow offered, in the final over before lunch, as Wright induced a strangle down the leg-side that bobbled out of his glove as his elbow hit the turf. He made amends for that miss, however, with a fine one-handed take in front of first slip to send Steven Patterson on his way for 11, after Hannon-Dalby had ended a streaky innings from James Middlebrook, via a snick to Clarke at second slip.

Bairstow looked set to be stranded on 94 overnight when, shortly before 5pm, the heavens opened with a downpour so biblical it lacked only the plague of locusts. However, not even the skies can limit his current form. There are three Yorkshire batsmen in England's Ashes squad already. On this form, few would argue with a fourth joining the fray before the series is done.