A stiff back for Ryan Sidebottom put paid to Yorkshire’s chances of setting up a game with Surrey during today’s fourth day at Headingley.

The White Rose county had to settle for their fourth LV= County Championship draw of the season to leave them in title contention ahead of the three-week break for Twenty20, which starts on Friday.

Captain Andrew Gale revealed he would have tried to come to some agreement with opposing skipper Vikram Solanki “for sure” over a target for the visitors to chase during the afternoon and evening sessions. But in the end, it was just too risky.

Yorkshire ended up being bowled out for 254 in their second innings during the last half hour of play, which left Surrey an irrelevant target of 335 in 21 overs.

They reached 4-0 after two overs when the players shook hands on a draw at 4.55pm.

Yorkshire claimed eight points to stay top of division one, although that may change today if Sussex beat Nottinghamshire.

“Coming to the ground this morning, I was quite excited,” explained Gale. “Unfortunately when I got here, Ryan Sidebottom had a stiff back, which meant we were down to two seamers. I think you all know the way myself and Jason Gillespie go about our cricket – we like to be attacking.

“But going in with two seamers and one spinner after already losing Steve Patterson to a broken toe, we felt it would be difficult to bowl them out.

“Ryan said that when he woke up, he couldn’t get his boxer shorts on. He did a bit of work with the physio, and it had loosened up after he had come off from batting. He thinks he’ll be okay in a couple of days.”

Another reason for Yorkshire’s understandable caution was the presence of Kevin Pietersen in Surrey’s line-up, especially after he had flexed his muscles with a brilliant 177 not out during Sunday’s third day.

“He can take a game away from you in an hour. It was an amazing knock the other day,” added Gale. “It was the best I’ve seen live on a cricket field. It didn’t matter where we put the field, he was going to hit it where there wasn’t fielders.”

Yorkshire were actually in danger of losing this match at stages today.

They lost three for ten runs during the morning to slip from 76-1 to 86-4 and were later 160-6, which amounted to a lead of 240, with the best part of 64 overs left in the day.

But Liam Plunkett’s 68 was crucial, while Surrey left-arm spinner Gary Keedy took 7-99 against the county where he started his career.

Plunkett hit seven fours in his 138-ball stay at the crease after Adil Rashid had hit 45. It was the former Durham man’s second 50 in the match and his highest score for the county.

Plunkett even batted for 68 minutes with Patterson for the ninth wicket to kill the contest.