THE only roses to bloom at Headingley yesterday were red ones until the last wicket pair of Jason Gillespie and Deon Kruis gave Yorkshire an unexpected chance of avoiding the follow-on in their Championship tussle with Lancashire.

Yorkshire had slumped to a humiliating 189-9 when Kruis joined Gillespie with a further 79 required to reach the safety line and they battled away for 20 overs until the close in an unbroken partnership of 63.

It left Yorkshire to start the final day on 252-9 and if they can add 16 more runs together they should have done enough to ensure that the weather-hit game ends in a draw.

Gillespie, a double centurion for Australia in the second Test in Bangladesh a few weeks' ago, finished the day on 39 while his South African partner, who saved the Roses match at Headingley last year with a heroic last wicket stand with Matthew Hoggard, stood on 21.

The pair also succeeded in earning Yorkshire a couple of batting bonus points which was something that looked highly unlikely when the batting started to crumble and five wickets clattered for only 33 runs.

Despite the brave last stand, Lancashire dominated the majority of the day's play with 20-year-old Liverpool-born paceman Tom Smith returning career-best figures of 4-55 in only his fourth Championship match, and Leeds-born left-arm spinner Gary Keedy grabbing 3-40, including the prize wickets of top-scorer Anthony McGrath and Darren Lehmann.

Keedy's successes were a particular embarrassment to Yorkshire who had gone into the match without their main spinner Richard Dawson.

Matthew Wood and Joe Sayers began the day for Yorkshire with the highest opening stand of the season but it had still only reached 34 when Wood drove down the wrong line at the solidly-built Smith and was bowled.

Sayers, with just 43 runs from six innings, settled in slowly and seemed to be gaining in confidence when he struck Dominic Cork for two fours in one over, but after reaching 23 he was bowled by Kyle Hogg with one which kept low.

Yorkshire were virtually scoreless as Smith posed constant problems and the only runs he gave away in his first seven overs were a boundary to McGrath, the batsman's one scoring shot in 37 deliveries.

Michael Lumb went soon after lunch, nicking an intended pull at Smith who was even bowling well enough to cause Lehmann some early problems, but it was the introduction of Keedy that brought about the Australian's downfall. He marched down the pitch to the spinner's third ball, failed to connect and was stumped by Luke Sutton for 33.

Craig White was lbw to Cork and Gerard Brophy was bowled sweeping Keedy but McGrath maintained the excellent form that has brought him at least a half century in each match from the start of the season until he, too, was lbw to Keedy for 64 from 143 balls with eight fours.

Smith accounted for Tim Bresnan and John Blain but Lancashire's plan to stick Yorkshire in again and snatch a few more wickets before the end of the day was foiled by Gillespie and Kruis.

SCOREBOARD

County Championship

Division 1

Yorkshire v Lancashire

at Headingley

(Day 4 of 4 today)

Yorkshire won toss

Lancashire First Innings

Chilton c McGrath b Kruis................... 4

Sutcliffe hit wicket b Gillespie ......12

Loye c Kruis b Bresnan .....................138

Hodge b Blain .............................. ......27

Law lbw b Blain ..................................101

Sutton lbw b Kruis ................................46

Chapple c Bresnan b Gillespie .......35

Hogg c Brophy b Bresnan .......12

Cork c Blain b Bresnan ........................11

Smith not out ...................................... 1

Keedy not out ......................................4

Extras b1 lb3 nb22 .......26

Total 9 wkts dec (111 overs) 417

Fall: 1-15 2-17 3-86 4-292 5-300 6-381 7-385 8-411 9-412

Yorkshire First Innings

Wood b Smith 13

Sayers b Hogg 23

McGrath lbw b Keedy 64

Lumb c Sutton b Smith 20

Lehmann st Sutton b Keedy 33

White lbw b Cork 1

Brophy b Keedy 1

Bresnan b Smith 13

Gillespie not out 39

Blain lbw b Smith 2

Kruis not out 21

Extras b4 lb4 nb14 22

Total 9 wkts (93 overs) 252

Fall: 1-34 2-46 3-99 4-156 5-157 6-164 7-181 8-185 9-189

Bowling: Cork 19-2-58-1 Chapple 20-7-47-0 Smith 22-10-55-4 Hogg 14-5-44-1 Keedy 18-3-40-3.

Updated: 10:36 Friday, May 19, 2006