The pattern of Yorkshire's early season continued as Jacques Rudolph plundered more exuberant runs and a gritty century offered further evidence of a return to the confident single-mindedness that served Joe Sayers so well in 2007. The story of the day was also a familiar one for Michael Vaughan, sadly for him.

Ravi Bopara's seizing of the spotlight at Lord's might not necessarily be bad news for the former England captain in his quest to return to Test cricket in time for the Ashes. If there is one absolute requirement, though, it is that Vaughan scores some serious runs. So far, it is proving more difficult than he might have hoped.

In the last week, rather than building a convincing case, after being overlooked for the West Indies, for his recall, Vaughan has produced only a string of low scores, yesterday's 16 following five, five and 10 in his latest visits to the crease.

He never looked particularly comfortable and after three boundaries, he drove hard at a wide-ish delivery outside off stump but did not get over the ball quite enough and it went straight to point, where Jim Troughton held on to a good catch.

If it was an unhappy moment for Vaughan it was a special one for Chris Woakes, the pace bowler of whom both Warwickshire and England have high hopes. He beat Vaughan more than once and had frustrated him with consecutive maidens immediately before his dismissal.

Otherwise, it was Yorkshire's day and a memorable one for Sayers, whose ability to eschew temptation for hours on end brought him three substantial hundreds in the space of five matches in the early summer of 2007 but who then suffered an extraordinary downturn in form. Last season, rarely even selected, he managed only 76 runs in total.

The 25-year-old left-hander's unbeaten 114 was constructed for the most part with the care and attention that had been his hallmark. It took him six hours but his 15 boundaries were precious for Yorkshire. Building on the launchpad provided by Rudolph and with Anthony McGrath, although dropped twice, weighing in with 46 so far, they are in control.