When Andrew Gale took over as Yorkshire captain at the start of this season he promised “attacking cricket” from his side, and today his stand-in deputy, Jacques Rudolph, has the chance to fulfil that pledge.

That is the case after an excellent performance all round from the Tykes on day three of the LV= County Championship match at Taunton saw them close with a second-innings lead of 182 with eight wickets intact.

That gives Rudolph the power to decide just when home team Somerset will be put into bat for a second time on the final day and whether a result can still be possible from this encounter.

It will certainly by fascinating to see what the South African-born skipper, deputising with Gale away on England Lions duty, chooses to do, but given the Tykes’ performance with the ball on day three he may back an aggressive declaration to try to win the game.

Without the normal new-ball pairing of Ajmal Shahzad and Tim Bresnan, who were both unavailable for this game due to their involvement with England at the World Twenty20, Yorkshire’s young attack once more performed as a unit to take six wickets for the loss of just 155 runs under gloomy conditions.

Adil Rashid led them, taking 2-36 on day three, to finish with season-best figures of 4-85, but he was helped out by his fellow bowlers as Somerset were reduced to 377 all out after resuming the day on 226-4.

Arul Suppiah, for a heart-breaking 99, Jos Buttler, for 52, and Charl Willoughby, for 10, were all ousted by David Wainwright, while Oliver Hannon-Dalby trapped Peter Trego lbw for 22 as the Tykes dominated an entertaining first two sessions.

That gave them a slender first-innings lead of 28, with 48 overs left to play on the penultimate day, but then Adam Lyth continued his phenomenal form with the bat to really put Yorkshire in command.

Following his career-best 142 in the first innings of this match, the 22-year-old made 93 before falling to the last ball of the day by Murali Kartik to see Yorkshire finish on 154-2.

He is now the top run-scorer in division one of the Championship, overtaking Rudolph, and his feat of 622 runs by mid-May with an average approaching 70 is a remarkable achievement.

The only other man Somerset managed to oust was Joe Sayers for 12, who was out lbw to Alfonso Thomas, which meant Anthony McGrath was to resume on 38 when play got underway today.

He will be joined at the crease by Rudolph to give the acting skipper a perfect viewpoint to decide on how quickly his side should score runs and when they should declare.

One factor that Rudolph is unlikely to have forgotten is that last year the Tykes were in a similar position here at Taunton.

Then they set Somerset a mighty 476 to win – and remarkably they achieved it.