A biting wind and leaden skies brought autumn to Colwyn Bay yesterday.

But Yorkshire's hopes of an Indian summer were kept alive by a brilliant unbeaten innings of 127 from captain Anthony McGrath, which forced a draw with Glamorgan after all had seemed lost.

Set to make 381 off what was ultimately 94 overs, Yorkshire capsized to 124 for six but then came the determined fightback, which saw them end the match on 193 for seven. They snatched a further four points from the stalemate to keep them in with a slender chance of making that third promotion spot, now held by Glamorgan.

A quarter-of-an-hour still remained when Glamorgan were happy to call it a day and come off for bad light.

McGrath, after almost playing his first ball into his stumps, was in a class apart from his batting colleagues, and while they floundered their captain reeled off some sumptuous strokes which showed England just what an exciting batsman he can be. But later, McGrath put down anchor to produce an innings of two parts which will rank among the all-time greats in Yorkshire's history.

The rot started in the third over of the Yorkshire chase when Matthew Wood was lbw on the back foot to Michael Kasprowicz, but McGrath hit back straight away by lashing the Australian paceman for four scorching boundaries in five deliveries.

These blows sent Yorkshire in to lunch quite optimistic at 42 for one in 11 overs, but early in the afternoon New Zealand captain Stephen Fleming was lbw to Dean Cosker for 16 to bring a disappointing end to his Championship stay. Michael Lumb, forced back on his stumps, was another Croft lbw victim, before McGrath went to his 50 out of 72 for three from 59 balls with ten boundaries.

Yuvraj Singh, in his final innings for Yorkshire, was unable to end on a bright note after what has been a disastrous stay.

His feet a long way from the ball, he drove Croft tamely to Cosker at cover to fly home today with a total of 135 Championship runs from ten completed innings at an average of 13.5. The slump continued as Richard Blakey was lbw to Kasprowicz after being in for 24 balls without scoring but with the light deteriorating, Glamorgan were forced to revert to an all-spin attack and stick to it for the remainder of the match.

Andy Gray survived 17 overs and 55 balls for 13 before edging Croft to the wicketkeeper, but in came Richard Dawson to stand even more rock solid while McGrath moved relentlessly to his first century of the season from 202 balls with 16 fours.

They had put on 64 together and only 40 minutes remained when Dawson was lbw to Croft after blocking out 102 balls for his 22.

Chris Silverwood continued to deny Glamorgan and when the umpires' offer of the light was accepted, McGrath's epic innings had lasted for 276 balls and 256 minutes and contained 19 boundaries.

Croft's marathon 42 overs brought him four for 80 while Cosker took one for 62 in 38 overs.

* The South Africans suffered a washout ahead of next week's fifth npower Test when no play was possible on the first day of the game at Derby.

Rain clouds hung over the County Ground throughout the morning and, with no sign of a break in the weather, the umpires were forced to abandon proceedings shortly after 3pm.

When the game does get under way, the tourists are expected to rest key players.