Yorkshire were denied the chance to make further progress against Northamptonshire at Wantage Road today by bad light and then rain which delayed the start of the third day of a keenly fought CricInfo Championship match between the Division One leaders and the bottom club.

Northants were due to resume their second innings on 26 for one and still trailing by 30 runs.

Few of David Byas's 26 centuries for Yorkshire have been as well deserved or as important as the one he painstakingly compiled at Wantage Road yesterday.

The captain battled his way to a faultless unbeaten 110 to dig his side out of trouble and take Yorkshire to 309 which gave them a first innings lead of 56 over their opponents.

It put Yorkshire in with a chance of going on to win a game which had appeared to be in danger of slipping away from them and it also brought them three batting bonus points when only one had appeared likely at one stage.

Byas's century was his second of the season and his highest score since making 116 against Leicestershire at Headingley over three years' ago.

By the time the last wicket fell, Byas had batted with unwavering concentration for almost five hours during which time he received 252 balls and struck 15 boundaries.

He began patiently, quite happy to pick up his runs in singles with the occasional four, but by the time Ryan Sidebottom was partnering him in a 78 stand in 25 overs for the ninth wicket he was hitting the ball with ringing authority.

The need for Byas's caution arose because Yorkshire lost a couple of wickets carelessly and then others went down at regular intervals against Northants' nicely balanced attack of pace and spin.

Resuming on 45 for one, Yorkshire made good progress early on, although Matthew Wood had a slice of luck on 38 when he hooked at Paul Taylor and was dropped by Michael Strong at long leg.

Wood, searching for a third consecutive century, completed his 50 and Lumb was also going nicely until both got out at 86, Lumb being drawn forward by Jason Brown's off-spin to be stumped by David Ripley and Wood pulling Strong tamely to Russell Warren.

Byas then joined Darren Lehmann, who was also looking for a third successive Championship century, and the Australian was dropped by Michael Hussey at slip off Brown when he had made only four, Lehmann going on to lift the same bowler over mid wicket for six.

The two left-handers had put on 62 together by early afternoon when Lehmann was run out for 29 to leave Byas with a lot of hard work ahead of him. Lehmann steered a ball from Strong to third man and called for a second run but he had not anticipated Brown hitting the stumps with a fast throw from the boundary edge.

Richard Blakey soon fell lbw to Brown but Gavin Hamilton, Richard Dawson and Sidebottom all played their part in keeping Byas company as Yorkshire showed the sort of determination expected of potential county champions.

Sidebottom was soon in the thick of the action again and his first ball was edged by Adrian Rollins into Blakey's gloves.

Updated: 12:59 Friday, July 06, 2001