YORKSHIRE suffered an early shock after winning the toss and batting first against Leicestershire at Grace Road today as their aimed to take another big step towards clinching the CricInfo Championship title.

Although Michael Vaughan was back in their side after his knee operation, Yorkshire still chose to open with Craig White and Matthew Wood, who piled up 309 together for the first wicket against Lancashire last week.

White was off the mark first ball with three through extra cover against James Ormond, but he was out in the paceman's next over.

He chased a wide one and edged a catch to wicketkeeper Neil Burns.

Vaughan was next in and off his second delivery he scored a five, playing Ormond to extra cover for a single and then picking up four overthrows as Iain Sutcliffe aimed at the stumps and missed. These runs took Vaughan past 9,000 runs in all first class matches.

Wood and Vaughan stabilised things and took the score to 56 off 18.1 overs.

Vaughan was back into the side at the expense of Anthony McGrath. The one other change from the side which thrashed Lancashire by an innings and 37 runs at Old Trafford last week was the return of Steven Kirby for the injured Chris Silverwood, who aggravated his back problems during the Roses game.

Kirby was rested against Lancashire in order to recharge his batteries. Leicestershire will be wary of a repeat performance from their former second teamer who had match figures of 12 for 72 when Yorkshire beat them by an innings and 227 runs at Headingley earlier in the season.

Yorkshire can make certain of being crowned champions next week when they play Glamorgan at Scarborough. To make sure of the title, Yorkshire need to beat both Leicestershire and Glamorgan and take 37 points from these games.

Even if they don't win any of their last four games they can reach their 214 points target with bonus points and draws regardless of what anyone else does.

TODAY'S SCOREBOARD

CricInfo County Championship

Leicestershire v Yorkshire

(first day of four, at Grace Road)

Yorkshire won toss

Yorkshire first innings

White c Burns b Ormond 3

Wood not out 19

Vaughan not out 26

Extras lb1 8

Total 1 wkt (18.1 overs) 56

Fall: 1-6

To bat: D Byas, D Lehmann, G Fellows, G Hamilton, R Blakey, R Dawson, S Kirby, P Hutchison.

Umpires: N Cowley and R White.

Updated: 15:41 Wednesday, August 15, 2001