Crucial day for Tykes (From The Northern Echo)

Crucial day for Tykes

12:07am Saturday 3rd September 2011 in Yorkshire CCC Match Reports

Yorkshire are set for a potentially defining day in their battle to stay in Division One of the LV County Championship.

Win against Warwickshire today and they will keep alive their hopes of avoiding the drop.

Draw or lose at Edgbaston and they will all but mathematically be relegated to the Second Division.

It is as simple as that ahead of the final day in Birmingham - when the Tykes will hope to replicate their excellent all-round display from yesterday.

Led by a century partnership between Gary Ballance and Adil Rashid, Yorkshire closed with a second-innings lead of 282 runs on 319 for five

This is some achievement, given the fact Warwickshire resumed day three on top, with the county's domination at Edgbaston beginning with the ball.

The Bears resumed on parity with Yorkshire on 281 for six in their first-innings, before two wickets from Moin Ashraf and one apiece from Ryan Sidebottom and Ajmal Shahzad made sure they were dismissed for only 318.

It meant a first-innings lead of 37 runs had been secured by the Tykes title chasing opponents, but with stand-in captain Joe Sayers and Joe Root opening in style for Yorkshire with the bat, the fight back continued.

Together they wiped out the deficit by lunch, before two wickets fell in the first over of the afternoon session to briefly check the county's progress.

Sayers was first to go for 23, with Adam Lyth then falling two balls later for a second ball duck to give Chris Wright the first of his three wickets.

The double breakthrough for Warwickshire only brought Anthony McGrath to the crease though, with the 35 year-old then choosing the perfect time to produce one of his finest knocks this season.

Wickets fell around him, with Root (49) and Jonny Bairstow (21) departing to spinner Chris Metters, as McGrath passed 50 for just the third time this year to increase the lead beyond 100.

He was eventually ousted for 57 by Wright, but with Yorkshire now sensing the opportunity to set-up a testing total, Ballance and Rashid continued on his good work.

By the close they had added an unbeaten 149 for the sixth wicket, with Rashid on 62 not out and Ballance just eight runs away from a maiden Championship century on 92.

Yorkshire will have to declare at some stage to give themselves a chance of winning the game.

History suggests the lead they have already will be a tough one to chase down.