TIM BRESNAN insists Yorkshire cannot be ruled out of the County Championship title race just yet after his battling half-century kept dreams of defending their crown alive.

Bresnan’s unbeaten 72 from 173 deliveries helped Yorkshire end the second day at Lord’s on 235-6 – still trailing Division One leaders Middlesex by 35 in their first innings.

And though their position in the game is a positive one, events in Somerset’s match with Nottinghamshire mean the Tykes must score 115 runs in the next 41 overs to reach 350 before the cut-off point for bonus points.

Such a scenario combined with a Yorkshire victory would hand the title to the White Rose county, though in the unlikely event of Somerset failing to secure a win of their own from a dominant position, such a score would no longer matter.

And Bresnan insists that, given the miraculous nature of some of Yorkshire’s successes in recent years, they are still very much alive in the three-way battle for silverware.

“We’re just trying to take the game and table situation out of it. You just have to focus on the first 10 runs, then the 10 runs after that and so on,” he said.

“We’ve got 40-odd overs left so that should be plenty of time if we score at the same rate. We’ll just be taking it in tens.

“With the clientele we have in our dressing room you never say never. We’ve won from some unbelievable positions already this year, and if we manage to get the bonus points we need, you can’t discount us.”

Bresnan’s innings underpinned Yorkshire’s fightback from slipping to 53-4 early in the afternoon session, with his partnership of 116 with Andrew Hodd crucial.

Hodd himself batted excellently to make 64, though he was somewhat fortunate to survive after being dropped by Nick Compton at third slip on 22.

He eventually became Toby Roland-Jones’s fourth wicket of the day after the seamer had dismissed Alex Lees, Gary Ballance and Andrew Gale for ducks with his new ball spell.

Only Adam Lyth was able to resist, but when he played on in Steven Finn’s first over for 43 the writing seemed to be on the wall before Bresnan and Hodd’s partnership.

David Willey (22) and Azeem Rafiq (20no) also added key lower-order runs, but it is Bresnan that Yorkshire will be pinning most of their hopes on going into Thursday’s play.

Earlier, Bresnan and Jack Brooks combined to bowl out the home side for 270 having been 208-5 overnight.

Bresnan had Nick Gubbins caught by Lyth at second slip having added five to his overnight score of 120 before James Franklin (48) feathered a catch through to wicketkeeper Hodd.

After a superb spell of two for five in seven overs he was replaced by Brooks from the Pavilion End, and the former Northamptonshire seamer completed career-best figures to wrap up the tail.

He first induced an edge from Roland-Jones that Lyth snaffled in the cordon before Tim Murtagh drove straight to Gale at mid-off to secure maximum bowling bonus points for the visitors.

Brooks then secured figures of six for 65 when Steven Finn edged behind and Lyth took a superb opportunist’s catch after Hodd had parried his initial effort towards the slips.