Yorkshire v Lancashire - Yorkshire facing defeat in Roses milestone match

It was a day which saw Lancashire take a vice-like grip on the 250th instalment of county cricket's most enduring rivalry.

After again being made to look distinctly ordinary with the ball during the morning session, the White Rose capitulated in the face of some impressive bowling from the visitors.

Adil Rashid, with a season's best 65, did provide some respite late in the afternoon for

Yorkshire against one of their main rivals for the County Championship title.

But there was no mistaking by the close just how perilous the position facing Andrew Gale's men had become with another 68 runs being required to avoid the follow-on.

Martyn Moxon, director of professional cricket, said: "We did not have a good day and it is difficult to put my finger on why.

"But, similarly, I don't want to be too hard on the guys because they have done well so far this season.

"We had a chat in the dressing room and there is a determination that if we do bat again then we have to get ourselves in a position where we don't lose the game."

The third day had been billed as being all about Adam Lyth and his attempt to become the first English-born batsman since the Second World War to reach 1,000 first-class runs before the end of May.

Rain washing out Saturday's play meant Lyth would have just one chance at hitting the 147 runs required to create a piece of history.

As is often the way in sport, however, the expectant 2,300 crowd inside Headingley Carnegie were soon left disappointed as Lyth chopped a delivery from Glen Chapple onto his stumps just two balls into the Yorkshire reply.

The shock at seeing the country's in-form batsman dismissed for a duck seemed to disrupt Lyth's team-mates with Chapple claiming another prized wicket when Anthony McGrath was trapped lbw in the third over.

Smith's introduction in place of the wayward Sajid Mahmood then brought further impetus to the Red Rose attack as Joe Sayers and Gale were removed in quick succession.

It meant that after Jacques Rudolph's promising innings was brought to an end when another sublime ball from Smith found the edge of the South African's bat, Yorkshire had slumped to 55-5 and were in grave danger of being routed.

Such was the control being exerted by Lancashire midway through the afternoon that it took Jonathan Bairstow 23 balls to get off the mark, while his first 63 minutes at the crease yielded just one boundary.

After such a slow start, he did finally rediscover his timing only to be caught by Smith at long-off when trying to repeat the trick of the previous delivery when Simon Kerrigan had been smashed for a six.

Smith then returned to the attack to trap Rashid in front of his stumps on 65 before Kerrigan tempted Tino Best into an unwise shot, allowing Kyle Hogg to pocket a simple catch.

Clearly, if the weather holds, the Tykes face an uphill battle to save a game that Lancashire have dominated for long periods since the action belatedly got underway on Sunday morning.

Yesterday's morning session was a typical example of Red Rose supremacy with Smith's maiden century and useful support from Chapple and Kyle Hogg helping the visitors to their first 400-plus total of 2010.

Captain Chapple provided the initial impetus after Luke Sutton had been trapped lbw by Steve Patterson with just the second ball of the day.

Clearly determined to quicken the pace, he attacked from the start and was fortunate to be dropped by Oliver Hannon-Dalby on the boundary after mis-timing a hook off Patterson.

A rash shot, this time off Rashid, did account for Chapple in the 11th over of the day but not before he had hit a useful 29 from 35 balls to change the pace of the innings.

Mahmood then became Ajmal Shahzad's second victim of the game when trapped lbw.

Yorkshire's need to improve their over rate then saw Sayers introduced to the attack, a move that allowed Lancashire to put 79 on for the ninth wicket in a little over 18 overs before Rashid had Hogg stumped by Bairstow.