Lehmann lights up Leeds

Rain has ruined the scene at Headingley just when an intriguing conclusion to the second day's play looked in prospect between the home team and Lancashire in this vital Championship fixture. A relatively brief, but nonetheless torrential, deluge shortly before the scheduled tea break sent the players scurrying from the field - with the Yorkshiremen well placed at 203/4 in reply to their opponents' 267 - and there was never a realistic chance of their return.

In such play as was possible, it was Darren Lehmann who again lit up the dull vista. In marked contrast to most of the batting which has gone before him in this game, the South Australian was the one Yorkshire player who successfully allied the need for restraint on a difficult pitch with the ability to punish the loose ball. Even more impressive than the characteristically bruising repertoire of shots he included in his unbeaten 83 today was his capacity to make batting look easy, without offering a chance, on a pitch which has caused players to struggle all around him. His sparkling shotmaking, which left him seventeen runs short of his third century of the season and fifty-six short of reaching 1,000 runs in the championship this year, blossomed the further that his unbroken stand of ninety-five for the fifth wicket with captain, David Byas (31*), progressed.

As for Byas himself, he was frustrated at the early finish but delighted by his team's fightback: "This is a huge match for us (as it is for Lancashire too) and we need to press on tomorrow.

"The loss of the final session to rain was a disappointment but we are in a position where we can go on and take a substantial lead and hopefully put Lancashire under some pressure in their second innings."

Had it not been for the intervention of the two left handers, Michael Vaughan (31) might well have been the only player to experience any sense of comfort about the worth of his contribution. Simon Widdup (16), Anthony McGrath (17) and Craig White (10) indeed never genuinely looked comfortable against Lancashire's enthusiastic, four-pronged pace attack. Mike Smethurst took a return catch to remove Vaughan and induced McGrath into an uncontrolled hook to have the visitors sensing early blood. Glen Chapple and Richard Green built on the momentum with a wicket each as the home team declined to 108/4. But that was all before Yorkshire's fine recovery and Mother Nature's intervention combined to thoroughly scupper Lancashire's afternoon.