Needing 403 to shake the cobwebs off the record books,
Yorkshire go into the final day on 107-4 in their second innings and facing the likelihood of a third successive defeat.

Since meeting Nottinghamshire in the Twenty20 Cup here four weeks ago today, the ill-fated match in which Azeem Rafiq appeared, Yorkshire's season has gone into freefall.

The club have been knocked out of the Friends Provident Trophy, eliminated from the Twenty20 Cup due to the furore surrounding Rafiq's ineligibility and gradually slipped out of Championship contention.

On-and-off the field it has been a calamitous period and one that could well prove fatal as far as this summer is concerned.

Yorkshire's woes were summed up yesterday when Rana Naved-ul-Hasan, the Pakistan fast bowler, was forced to leave the field three balls into the first over of the morning with a neck/shoulder injury.

A nerve in Rana's right shoulder caused him to experience pain in his neck, although Yorkshire were quick to rule out any connection between this problem and the dislocated right shoulder the player incurred at the end of last season.

Martyn Moxon, Yorkshire's director of professional cricket, explained: "Rana has been struggling a bit for a couple of days, but it's not related to what he had before. He came through the warm-up okay before play got under way, but the problem came back when he started to bowl."

Rana is expected to bat today, but how Yorkshire missed his cutting edge. As Nottinghamshire made generally simple progress from an overnight
146-2 to 350, only losing wickets towards the end as the lower order hit out, Yorkshire could have done with Rana's canny seamers.

For the visitors to have had any realistic hope of getting back into this match, they needed to take plenty of wickets during the morning session; they managed two.

Deon Kruis, summoned to complete Rana's interrupted over, struck with the last ball when he had Mark Wagh lbw for 60. But Yorkshire had to wait until five minutes before lunch for another breakthrough, Tim Bresnan winning an lbw verdict against Adam Voges whom he had earlier had dropped at third slip by Adam Lyth.

Nottinghamshire lunched on 228-3 with an imposing lead of 284. By then it was already an exercise in damage limitation for a Yorkshire team who huffed and puffed but mostly struggled.

After the break, Bresnan struck again when he had Samit Patel caught at second slip by Jacques Rudolph with the total on 265 after Patel had compiled a tidy half-century. But not until Nottinghamshire had lifted their total beyond 300 did wickets start to tumble as the home team eyed a potential declaration.

Rashid was the chief beneficiary of this attacking thrust, claiming four of the last five wickets, but it was no more than the leg-spinner deserved.

Throughout the innings Rashid bowled with good control and loop from the Pavilion End and could be well satisfied with his efforts.

Graeme Swann, Andre Adams and Paul Franks perished trying to strike him across the line, Swann flaying an entertaining 57 from 73 deliveries, while Chris Read tried to drive him through the covers and was caught in the gully.

Matthew Hoggard managed only one wicket during the day, sending back Mark Ealham lbw, but he bowled some tidy stuff from the Radclifffe Road end without ever reaching tip-top form.

Yorkshire's reply began in sadly typical fashion when Joe Sayers was caught behind with the total on two. Having made a dash down the M1 to play in the game as a late replacement for Anthony McGrath, who was forced to withdraw with a hamstring injury, Sayers has endured a match to forget.

Scores of nine and two mean the left-hander has mustered only 76 runs in nine Championship innings this year at 8.44.

Chris Taylor batted well for 48 before falling lbw to Ealham, the first of three wickets captured by the all-rounder in the space of 14 balls. Rudolph edged him to Read and Andrew Gale was caught in the slips as Yorkshire plunged to 75-4, but Adam Lyth (35) and Gerard Brophy (20) averted further mishap.


DISPLAY OF THE DAY

Adil Rashid

Stuck to his task well on his way to figures of 4-96 from 33 overs, in the process passing 100 first-class wickets.