England skipper Vaughan and Yorkshire struggle to find their form at Leicester

Play began with Yorkshire confidently expecting to build upon the advantage they had gained on the first day but it ended with them in grave danger of crashing to their first defeat of the season in any competition.

After dipping to 45-6 at one stage, they were bowled out for 151, their lowest score in two seasons, to leave themselves trailing by 127 runs on the first innings, and when Leicestershire closed the second day on 183-5 their lead was an emphatic 310.

The highest winning score Yorkshire have ever made is 331 against Middlesex at Lord's in 1910 and they seem almost certain to have an even bigger mountain to climb this time.

One of the six Yorkshire wickets to fall in 70 minutes of mayhem was that of Vaughan for only nine, leaving the England captain still searching for his true form with time running out before the Test series with Bangladesh.

Having come in to save a hat-trick, Vaughan got off the mark first ball but after a couple of edged boundaries he was palpably lbw to a good delivery from David Masters which nipped back and kept low.

The main damage, however, was inflicted by 36-year-old paceman Ottis Gibson who grabbed four wickets for nine runs in 29 balls to finish with 6-51.

Although the ball moved around a bit for Gibson it was even more difficult to understand why Yorkshire got into such a mess than it had been to work out why Leicestershire had batted quite feebly the previous day.

Matthew Wood and Phil Jaques began with an opening stand of 27 but the picture changed rapidly as Wood was then caught behind and with his next ball Ottis had Anthony McGrath taken low at second slip by Hilton Ackerman.

Vaughan then perished off his 14th ball and with the score unchanged on 44 Jaques edged Gibson to Darren Robinson at first slip, the collapse continuing as Ian Harvey played Gibson into his stumps and Craig White got an inside edge against Masters.

Yorkshire's embarrassment was eased by Ismail Dawood and Richard Dawson in a lively partnership of 61 in 15 overs before Dawson had not sliced to gully where he was brilliantly caught by Robinson.

Dawood continued to bat with some style and when he finally ran out of partners he had made 62 from 88 balls with eight quality boundaries.

Dinesh Mongia led the way for Leicestershire in their second innings with 70 from 115 balls, five Yorkshire bowlers each claiming a wicket.

CRICKET SCOREBOARD

Frizzell County Championship

Division Two

(Day 3 of 4 today)

Leicestershire v Yorkshire

(at Grace Road)

Leicestershire Won Toss

Leicestershire First Innings: 278 (D Kruis 3-40)

Yorkshire First Innings

Wood c Nixon b Gibson 17

Jaques c Robinson b Gibson 14

McGrath c Ackerman b Gibson 0

Vaughan lbw b Masters 9

Harvey b Gibson 1

White c Nixon b Masters 0

Dawood not out 62

Dawson c Robinson b Maddy 29

Bresnan c Nixon b Gibson 2

Hoggard not out 2

Kruis c Habib b Henderson 4

Extras lb5 w1 nb4 11

Total 8 wkts (39 overs) 151

Fall: 1-27 2-27 3-44 4-44 5-45 6-45 7-106 8-124 9-134

Bowling: Gibson 17-3-56-6, Willoughby 8-1-18-0, Masters 8-1-28-2, DeFreitas 4-0-18-0, Maddy 2-0-6-1, Henderson 6.4-0-19-1.

Leicestershire Second Innings

Robinson b Hoggard 6

Maddy lbw b Harvey 27

Mongia c Dawood b Dawson 70

Habib lbw b Bresnan 16

Ackerman c Jaques b McGrath 30

Nixon not out 19

Gibson not out 5

Extras lb6 nb4 10

Total 5 wkts (56 overs) 183

Fall: 1-20 2-66 3-107 4-130 5-170

Bowling: Hoggard 11-2-39-1 Kruis 8-2-29-0 Bresnan 6-2-19-1 Harvey 13-4-29-1 McGrath 12-1-37-1 Dawson 6-0-24-1

Old Trafford: Lancashire 199 & 135-5 v Durham 338. Northampton: Northamptonshire 552-7 dec v Essex 156-7. Worcester: Worcestershire 478 v Derbyshire 260-9.

Division One

Canterbury: Hampshire 328 & 191-2 v Kent 305. Lord's: Middlesex 390 & 93-3 v Gloucestershire 232 The Oval: Surrey 444 & 66-0 v Glamorgan 345. Hove: Sussex 412 bt Warwickshire 179 & 146 by an innings and 87 runs.

Updated: 10:50 Friday, May 13, 2005