YORKSHIRE are on course to secure only their second home Roses County Championship win in the last 25 seasons having set Lancashire 349 to win at Headingley.

The visitors reached the close on day three, which came almost 17 overs early due to bad light, on 41-1.

Although Lancashire are confident of securing a fourth win from six Specsavers Division One fixtures this season, an away success would be a major surprise.

Not only do they have to score the highest total of the match so far, they would also have to achieve their 10th highest ever fourth-innings total in first-class cricket.

It would also be their seventh highest ever successful run chase – and conditions are against them.

All the way through the match, batsmen have had to battle hard for runs. No one has yet posted a century, while Adil Rashid and Tim Bresnan's 136 for the sixth wicket on day one was the only 100-plus partnership of the contest.

Wickets tumbled regularly on the third day as well, with Yorkshire thankful to further contributions from Rashid and Bresnan after they had slipped to 89-6 in their second innings.

Having started the day at 77-3, they were in trouble before Rashid hit 34, Bresnan 29 and Liam Plunkett 57 to underpin a total of 236.

Lancashire started their chase eight overs before tea and lost Tom Smith for 15 when caught at short cover off Steve Patterson.

In the end, Yorkshire came out on the right side of a topsy-turvy day.

It had started with them losing three quick wickets to set nerves jangling – the lead was only 201 – as impressive New Zealand left-armer Neil Wagner struck twice on the way to figures of 4-71 from 24 overs.

He bowled Adam Lyth (48) around his legs with the second ball of the day after the first had gone for four, before getting Andrew Gale (7) caught at short-leg.

Sandwiched in between, Smith had night-watchman Steve Patterson (1) caught behind.

Thankfully from Yorkshire's point of view, they were able to dig deep and recover, as they did in the first innings when left at 74-5.

Although a Lancashire attack minus the injured Tom Bailey battled hard, they could not prevent the White Rose hosts from adding 147 for the last four wickets either side of lunch.

Rashid and Bresnan shared 41 for the seventh wicket to calm things down before the latter player was caught at first slip off Luke Procter. Bresnan was unhappy with the decision as replays suggested it was a bump ball.

Plunkett and Rashid then shared 74 inside 23 overs for the eighth wicket to advance the score from 130-7, with the former leading the way.

He hit Simon Kerrigan for a straight six shortly after reaching an 80-ball fifty but fell almost immediately afterwards caught at deep cover. Rashid had earlier fallen to Kerrigan, caught behind.

Procter wrapped up the innings when he bowled Jack Brooks (5) but by then the damage had been done.

Opener Haseeb Hameed (16no) and Procter (6no) will begin day four at the crease with a mountain to climb in the form of 308 more runs.

Meanwhile, England pair Joe Root and Jonny Bairstow have been made available for the Roses NatWest T20 Blast clash at Emirates Old Trafford on Friday.