ACTING captain Matthew Wood continued his rich vein of form with the bat by making a commanding 89 but Yorkshire still struggled on the second day of their Championship match against Derbyshire at sweltering Derby yesterday.

By the close they had reached 276-6 in reply to Derbyshire's 406 and were finding it difficult to remain competitive in a game which they must win if they are to go on harbouring hopes of promotion.

Wood, who faced 129 balls and thrashed 15 fours, recorded his seventh Championship half-century in eight consecutive innings but in none of them has he been able to go on to the century mark.

He looked all set to do so in this latest effort until he cut hard at Mo Sheikh and was caught by Graeme Welch at slip, Wood throwing his head back in disbelief at his dismissal.

The catch was a good one but not as good as three other stunning efforts which ensured that Yorkshire had a constant struggle on their hands in the sultry weather.

Andrew Gale, who had begun brightly with Wood, played Paul Havell off the meat of the bat and fell to a reflex catch by Steve Stubbings at short leg; Michael Lumb was stunningly held by Andrew Gait chasing after a skier at mid-wicket, and Ian Harvey slammed one into Stubbings' midriff at mid-wicket only to see the ball stick.

As well as picking up Wood's wicket, Sheikh also accounted for Lumb and Harvey during what was a highly successful day for the pace bowler.

He had started it by resuming his innings with Derbyshire on 351-9 and he and last man Havell thwarted Yorkshire by extending their stand to 55 to give the Peakites maximum batting bonus points from their highest score of the season.

For some reason, Yorkshire did not immediately bring on Anthony McGrath, who had claimed five wickets for the first time in his career the previous day, and the batsmen picked up easy runs, particularly off Harvey who failed to take a wicket in the innings.

It was left to Andy Gray to end the resistance by having Sheikh caught behind for 42 from 99 balls with four boundaries.

With the first half of Yorkshire's order having disappeared for 173 it was up to Vic Craven and Ismail Dawood to take responsibility for avoiding the possibility of the follow-on and they got to within seven of the 257 target before spinner Hassan Adnan joined the attack and had Dawood lbw for a patient 36, his highest score since joining Yorkshire.

Dawood had put on a valuable 77 in 31 overs with Craven who had reached his season's best score of 44 by the close when Richard Dawson was 17.

Updated: 11:09 Friday, July 30, 2004