IT hasn’t all been good news for Yorkshire’s Adam Lyth this last fortnight despite an LV= County Championship title win, nearly 1,500 runs in a season and an England Performance Programme call-up.

Lyth even celebrated his 27th birthday yesterday with an innings of 51, the 12th time he has passed 50 in the Championship this summer.

He helped Yorkshire significantly minimise the threat of a season-ending defeat against Somerset at Headingley during yesterday’s third day, a healthy one for the champions.

But, unfortunately, his day had started in an unexpected manner as two or three of his team-mates ran up to him in the field during the early stages of play to give him a hug.

“Some of the lads forgot my birthday!” he explained with a smile and a chuckle. “I haven’t got any presents from the lads.”

Win, lose or draw today, the final day of the season, Yorkshire will quite rightly celebrate their title success in style: “Hopefully I’ll get a few presents in the form of a beer or two after the game,” he said.

The chances are the White Rose will draw the clash having reached close at 148-2 in the 45th over of their second innings, a deficit of 36.

Lyth hit 51 and Gary Ballance 50 not out, with the former narrowly missing out on 1,500 runs for the season by eleven when he mistimed a pull at Peter Trego to mid-on after tea.

Earlier, Adil Rashid had taken the last four Somerset first-innings wickets in 14 balls either side of lunch as they were bowled out for 437 having started the day on 319-3.

He had Trego caught at cover, Tim Groenewald and Alfonso Thomas caught at short leg and Craig Kieswetter neatly stumped by Jonny Bairstow in successive overs from the 115th to the 121st.

Rashid finished with 4-116 from 27.1 overs, while two wickets for Steve Patterson helped him complete a haul of 4-54 from 28.

"I was disappointed not to get 1,500 runs for the season. It would have been a nice birthday present. I'd have taken 1,489 at the start,” said Lyth, who has not completely ruled out a Yorkshire win.

"The first two days didn't go quite so well, but we came back well. Fingers crossed we can bat well again and have a crack at them with the ball.

"The first thing is to try and bat well and save the game. If there's a possibility of putting them in for a tricky 25 or 30 overs, we might do that.”

Lyth will celebrate with his team-mates this weekend before linking up with the Performance Programme squad for fitness testing at the National Performance Centre in Loughborough on Monday.

He will then have some time off before a potential busy winter of England commitments starts in November with training both at home and in Sri Lanka.

“The Performance Programme call just kind of tipped off the season for me,” he added. “It didn't really come as a surprise after how I've done. Hopefully I can do as well as I have done this season in the winter."

The Yorkshire players, led by Andrew Gale, will be represented with the Championship trophy at the end of the match in a move initiated by the club.