Jonny Tattersall cashes in after key success with the coin

So proclaimed Kingsmill Key, who led Surrey with distinction in the late 19th-century.

Jonny Tattersall cashed in with an unbeaten 90 after inserting Leicestershire on a morning when the coin proved to be the key to success.

So proclaimed Kingsmill Key, who led Surrey with distinction in the late 19th-century.

The old quote sprang to mind after Leicestershire - inserted by Tattersall on a grey and gloomy morning, with the pitch a rich green and conditions good for bowling - crashed to 15-7 after just an hour’s play.

Although Tattersall can, and does, a lot more for Yorkshire than simply call correctly, it was a huge toss to win - his third on the spin since standing in for Shan Masood, the Pakistan Test captain - and the prelude towards that eventful “big first hour”, one in which four wickets fell to Ben Coad and three to Matty Fisher, who was playing his first match for four months after injury.

By then, having fulfilled Key’s solitary criteria for successful leadership, Tattersall could have been forgiven for catching a train home.

“I’ve done my bit, lads - check out what Kingsmill Key had to say about it,” he might have explained to his nonplussed colleagues as they finished their pre-match warm-ups, before heading for the station.

That would have been to miss all the fun, however, and although Leicestershire recovered to 98 all-out - 51 of them scored by Ben Cox, the wicketkeeper, who decided that attack was the best form of defence during a 31-ball innings that included eight fours and two sixes - it was Yorkshire who ended the day on top.

As if to emphasise that a captain’s role is somewhat more extensive, Tattersall top-scored with an unbeaten 90 in their reply of 263-8, made from 152 balls with 10 fours, an innings full of lovely timing and trademark touch-play, Yorkshire’s lead already in match-winning territory.

As ever, when wicket-strewn scorecards are studied from afar, one wonders if the pitch was a minefield and the ball hooping around.

Although conditions were indeed favourable for Yorkshire, who then batted in the best part of a day when blue skies and sunshine eventually appeared, it was basically consistent bowling with just enough movement that did the damage, combined with indifferent batting and defensive technique.

The tone was set in the first over as the floodlights shone down, Rishi Patel edging Coad’s fifth delivery low to third slip.

Leicestershire fell to 3-4 as Fisher had Lewis Hill taken at second slip before Coad bowled Ian Holland through the gate and then had Rehan Ahmed held at second.

When Louis Kimber tried to launch Coad over mid-on and was lbw, as was Ajinkya Rehane when he missed a straight one from Fisher, Leicestershire were 11-6 - which became 15-7 when Fisher pinned Liam Trevaskis playing across the line.

Record books, at this point, were being frantically thumbed but there is usually a partnership of some description and Leicestershire found two of reasonable value: Cox and Tom Scriven adding 37 for the eighth wicket before Coad had Scriven caught behind, and then Cox and Chris Wright sharing 39 for the 10th wicket, the highest stand of the innings, ended when George Hill bowled Wright on the stroke of lunch.

Coad finished with 5-15 from 10 overs - becoming the Second Divison’s leading wicket-taker in the process with 43 - and Fisher captured 3-38 from eight.

The innings done and dusted in 24.2 overs, there was barely enough time for the Kookaburra ball to get soft.

Yorkshire should have lost a wicket to the first ball of their reply, Adam Lyth dropped by Wright off his own bowling.

Both openers were back in the hutch with 21 on the board, Fin Bean playing out to gully, and Lyth adjudged caught behind.

Will Luxton followed one and was spectacularly caught by a diving third slip, while Jonny Bairstow hit four fours in a breezy cameo before trying to strike down the ground and being taken at first, leaving Yorkshire 56-4.

Leicestershire then spilled two catches that may ultimately prove the difference in this match: James Wharton was grassed on 14 by Patel at first slip off Scriven, whom he then hit for three successive boundaries, and Tattersall shelled on five at backward-point by Rehan off Wright, which would have left Yorkshire 76-6, the day back in the balance.

As it was, Wharton went on to 41 before clubbing a short ball to long-on, ending a stand with Tattersall worth 53, while Tattersall knuckled down to play

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