An unbroken eighth wicket century stand between Derbyshire's Ant Botha and Tom Lungley forced Yorkshire to put their champagne back on ice at Derby yesterday - but it should be only be a matter of time before it is brought out again today.

When Derbyshire lost their seventh wicket at 233 in the first over after tea, they were still 71 runs away from an innings defeat inside three days and Yorkshire seemed within easy range of winning the game and clinching promotion.

But the two left-handers suddenly launched a successful counter attack, flogging the ball to all parts, and by the close they had raced their partnership onto 133 - which had wiped out the deficit and taken Derbyshire to 366 for seven with a lead of 62.

Botha had reached a Championship best score of 98 from 111 balls with 13 fours and a six while Lungley had made more sedate progress to 34.

The stand was only one run away from equalling Derbyshire's highest for the eighth wicket against Yorkshire - 134 by Geoff Miller and Michael Holding at Chesterfield in 1985.

Derbyshire's new floodlights were turned on after the tea interval and Yorkshire had the chance of reducing their opponents to 305 for eight but wicketkeeper Simon Guy put down a simple catch the ball after Botha had completed his half-century.

Yorkshire, becoming increasingly uneasy, took the new ball at 311 for seven but it made little difference and the century stand came up in 22 overs.

Yorkshire will take a maximum 22 points out of the match if they win it, but even a draw would move them into second place in the table and assure them of £15,000 in prizemoney.

If they are successful today and beat Northamptonshire in their last match, starting at Northampton on Wednesday, they could displace Lancashire at the top to earn an additional £15,000.

Derbyshire began their second innings on the third morning trailing by 305 but the bottom-of-the-table team did not capitulate as easily as the many Yorkshire fans on the ground imagined.

Nearly all their batsmen resisted stubbornly, none more so than opener Steve Stubbings who battled away for 74 overs before being seventh out at 233 for 91 from 214 balls with ten fours.

Stubbings fell in the first over after tea when he was bowled driving out of the rough by leg-spinner Mark Lawson, who got plenty of turn and showed commendable form in only his second match of the season.

Just before the interval, Lawson had dismissed Luke Sutton and Graeme Welch with leg-breaks which found the edge of the bat and were pocketed at slip by Anthony McGrath.

Earlier in the day, Stubbings had received solid support from Hassan Adnan and then Australian, Jon Moss, in a stand of exactly 100 in 21 overs which ended when Moss was lbw stepping forward to a ball from Mark Cleary which hit him on the full.

Moss's departure left Derbyshire on 203 for four and when Sutton was out to Lawson it meant that the first five wickets had all fallen to different bowlers.

* Yorkshire have given a two-year contract to their South African fast bowler, Deon Kruis, who is the club's leading wicket-taker this summer.

Kruis, who joined Yorkshire as a Kolpak player at the start of the season, has so far grabbed 59 Championship wickets at just over 30 runs apiece.