County Championship: Tykes lead after Gary Ballance & Jack Brooks batter Pears

England's Gary Ballance hit 189 not out in a ninth-wicket stand of 171 with Jack Brooks as Yorkshire took an unexpected lead in a crazy turnaround against Worcestershire at New Road.

After adding 21 runs to be bowled out for 340, relegated Worcestershire had the Tykes on the back foot at 193-7.

But Ballance and Brooks (82) cashed in on the absence of Josh Tongue to help plunder 203 runs in the final session.

Yorkshire ended the day with a 77-run lead after closing on 417-9.

But already relegated Worcestershire were clearly hampered by the loss after tea of Pears paceman Tongue with a recurrence of his previous foot injury, when he had taken 3-31 in 14 overs.

Somerset-bound Brooks went in the penultimate over of the day for 82, the second highest score of his career, while Ballance ended the day still there with last man Ben Coad (2 not out), after 29 fours and a six in his season's best score.

Former Yorkshire skipper Ballance, who surrendered the captaincy mid-summer, is ending the season on song, following up his 104 in the draw against Nottinghamshire and 85 in the Roses match win at Headingley, which effectively sent rivals Lancashire down.

Brooks, who is leaving Yorkshire to join Somerset on a three-year contract, followed up his six-wicket haul in Worcestershire's first innings, having earlier taken the last wicket to fall.

Ballance and Brooks surpassed Yorkshire's previous ninth-wicket best against Worcestershire of 150, set by Azeem Rafiq and Matthew Hoggard on this same ground at New Road in 2009.

Worcestershire head bowling coach Alan Richardson told BBC Hereford & Worcester:

"It was quite a strange day. For the majority of it, we acquitted ourselves really well, chipped away and took wickets and got ahead of the game.

"That last session, 203 runs and only two wickets, has slightly taken it away from us. It is a bit disappointing after all the hard work we put in for the first five sessions.

"It's the first time I can remember this year where we've had one of those lower-order partnerships against us. But Gary Ballance has batted beautifully. He looked like he was playing on a different wicket to everyone else. He was ably supported by Jack Brooks who probably played a slightly different sort of innings to Gary."

Yorkshire fast bowler Jack Brooks:

"There was a lot of hard work to be done at tea. Gary had a nice little partnership with James Logan. I went out there with a little bit of licence but I just wanted to bat with Gary for as long as I could.

"The main thing is I didn't want to bowl again. The longer I batted, I didn't have to bowl. That was going through my mind a lot when I was out there.

"It went my way. Guys bowled in my areas. so to speak. I could imagine it was quite entertaining to watch. It was just great to watch Gary play the way he did. One of his best hundreds. I would have thought."