Richard Blakey and Richard Dawson were transformed into Richard the Lionhearts at Canterbury yesterday when their seventh- wicket crusade stopped Kent from completing what had appeared to be a straightforward victory march inside three days.

The pair came together at 2.10pm upon the fall of Darren Lehmann's wicket which left Yorkshire on 151 for six and still 28 runs away from avoiding an innings defeat.

And when they were finally parted a few minutes before the close they had chiselled out 162 together in almost four hours of dogged resistance. On the way they overtook Yorkshire's previous record for the seventh wicket against Kent of 147 between Michael Vaughan and Richard Harden at Scarborough three years ago.

Blakey ended the day on 88, his highest score since hitting a century against Glamorgan in 1999, while Dawson's defiant 87 left in the shade his previous best knock of 37 on his debut against Leicestershire last summer.

Their courageous batting means that Yorkshire go into the final day on 323 for seven with a lead of 144 and just a slender chance of breaking their Championship duck this season with a sensational victory.

Until Blakey and Dawson teamed up, Yorkshire had again shown an alarming capacity to yield under pressure and coach Wayne Clark was later full of praise for the guts which the two batsmen had displayed.

"They refused to be alarmed by the situation and they showed what can be achieved with proper disciplined batting," he said.

"Too often we have folded under pressure through lack of confidence but Blakey and Dawson have shown just what can be achieved."

Blakey was unflappable throughout his innings, while Dawson overcame an uncertain start to catch up his senior partner who had already been in 14 overs when they came together.

Nothing worried Blakey, who took 40 minutes to move off 65 and 50 minutes to leave 78 behind, but he also had periods of scoring which included three consecutive boundaries off Andy Symonds to complete his half-century.

Dawson must have breathed a sigh of relief when he left alone his first ball from spinner Min Patel and it missed his off-stump by a whisker, but his courage was equal to Blakey's as he got his head down and applied himself. He was not afraid to go for his shots, however, and one top-edged hook off Martin Saggers sailed for six with the next ball being hammered through the covers.

Both batsmen looked as if they would live to fight another day until Dawson got an inside edge off Patel which went on to his pad and Symonds dived in front of first slip to hold an athletic catch. Dawson had received 211 balls and hit 11 fours and a six.

Chris Silverwood drove Patel's last ball of the day for six, Blakey finishing with 14 fours in his unbeaten innings which had used up 245 balls.

The day had started badly for Yorkshire with Craig White being out to Saggers' second delivery and when soon after lunch Patel dismissed Lehmann for 72 from 110 balls with eight fours all seemed up for the county champions.