Yorks v Notts, day 4: White Rose cling on for Headingley draw

By tea, Yorkshire's second innings had stretched for just half an hour short of five sessions to take their score to 406 for eight, which gave them a slender lead of 39.

But then it began to rain and the match was abandoned at 5.10pm, the only consolation for Nottinghamshire being that they leapfrogged Yorkshire to take a five-point lead at the top of the Division One table - with a game in hand over their opponents.

Having started their innings trailing by 367, Yorkshire still had a lot of hard work in front of them when they resumed in the morning on 272 for two with a further 95 runs needed to wipe out the arrears.

Nightwatchman Steven Patterson did a splendid job, batting into the afternoon before being dismissed, but Anthony McGrath could only add two to his overnight 78 before he was caught behind by Chris Read off Darren Pattinson, leaving him just 20 short of both his century and 1,000 first-class runs for the season.

Patterson continued to defend dourly and with skipper Andrew Gale also making slow progress it was 95 minutes from start of play before Patterson squeezed the first boundary of the day to third man.

Gale departed at 322 when he gave a return catch to Ryan Sidebottom and by lunch Yorkshire had added 53 runs in 30 overs for the loss of two wickets.

Patterson's solid resistance came to an end 10 minutes after the resumption when he played Samit Patel off bat and pad and the ball bobbed to Mark Wagh at silly point.

Three overs later, Jonny Bairstow was bowled driving down the wrong line at Pattinson and at 336 for six Yorkshire were up against it.

But Gerard Brophy and Adil Rashid relieved some of the immediate pressure with a 62-run stand in 21 overs during which both batsmen played some clean looking strokes to move their side into the lead.

But, as tea approached, Sidebottom struck two more blows against his native county. He had Brophy caught behind off a great delivery which left him late and the ball before tea was edged by Ajmal Shahzad low to third slip where Andre Adams scooped up a fine catch, leaving Rashid unbeaten on 34.