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, writes David Warner.

Yorkshire had slumped to a humiliating 189 for nine 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 for nine and if they can add 16 more runs together they should have done enough to ensure the weather-hit game ends in a draw.

Gillespie, a double centurion for Australia in Bangladesh recently, 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 last stand, Lancashire dominated the day with paceman Tom Smith returning a career-best four for 55, and Leeds-born left-arm spinner Gary Keedy grabbing three for 40, including the prize wickets of Anthony McGrath, and Darren Lehmann.

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 Smith and was bowled.

Sayers, just 43 runs from six innings, settled 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.

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 for 33.