YORKSHIRE all-rounder Tim Bresnan remained hopeful of completing a victory over Nottinghamshire in the County Championship despite heavy rain cutting short the third day at Scarborough.

Only 35.2 overs were possible today as the Tykes went in search of a win that would lift them to within five points of leaders Middlesex and boost their hopes of a third successive Championship title.

Nottinghamshire ended the day on 61-3 in their pursuit of an unlikely victory target of 452, but with heavy rain threatening the start of play on the final day the result remains in the balance.

Bresnan – who made 35 not out with the bat before taking two wickets in his first over with the ball – believes that a repeat of the bowling that led to Notts being dismissed for 94 in their first innings will be enough to complete a crucial victory.

“There’s still plenty of time left and with the forecast better tomorrow we’ve still got the time to get the result that we want,” he said.

“If we bowl anything like how we did in the first innings and today before the rain then we know there’s enough in the wicket. We’ll just have to be patient.

“The championship’s hanging in the balance. This is our game in hand, so closing the gap would be nice but we still need to play good cricket until the end of the season to challenge again.”

Having chosen not to enforce the follow-on on day two, Yorkshire resumed their second innings on 200-4, though they were made to wait as overnight rain forced a 40-minute delay to proceedings.

Once the Tykes were back under way, Bresnan and stand-in captain Gary Ballance added 63 runs in 12.2 overs, with Ballance going through to the 29th first-class century of his career.

He faced 164 balls for his unbeaten 101 having hit 14 fours before declaring his side’s innings on 263-4 shortly before lunch, leaving his bowlers 175 overs to take the ten wickets required to complete a comprehensive win.

Jack Brooks, though, only required three balls before taking the first of those as he found the edge of Steven Mullaney’s bat and Jack Leaning took a straightforward catch in the slips.

Youngsters Jake Libby and Tom Moores were able to defy Yorkshire’s seamers through the opening throes of the afternoon session before Bresnan swung the pendulum back towards Yorkshire.

He removed Libby with the first ball of his spell as Jake Lehmann held onto a tumbling catch at fourth slip before former Tykes batsman Michael Lumb feathered an edge through to wicketkeeper Andrew Hodd for his second duck of the match.

Despite that, Moores battled hard, and finished the day with a career-best 41 not out in what is his debut for Notts having spent much of the season on loan at Lancashire.

He played some eye-catching strokes before the umpires deemed the light to be bad enough to bring the players off the field at around 2.50pm, with heavy rain soon following.

An early tea was taken, and with conditions not having improved by 4pm a decision was made to abandon play early and leave Yorkshire with a minimum of 96 overs to pull themselves over the line tomorrow.