AS Yorkshire's Michael Vaughan was making hay for England against India in the fourth test at the Oval his county team-mates were battling hard to avoid relegation, writes David Warner.

Vaughan's heroics in compiling an undefeated 182 on the first day of the deciding test elevated him to an elite division of only five Englishmen to score four centuries in a Test summer.

Meanwhile, over at Scarborough, Ryan Sidebottom was the Tykes' hero. He shrugged off a persistent groin strain to capture 5-60 runs, his best figures in two seasons, as Yorkshire managed to stay in the hunt against Leicestershire.

At one stage Sidebottom grabbed three wickets in 11 balls without conceding a run to leave Leicestershire struggling on 150-7 but Neil Burns and Javagal Srinath staged a recovery which took them to 279 and a first innings lead of three.

Yorkshire were given a flying start by Vic Craven and they closed on 137-3 with the game nicely balanced.

Leeds-born Iain Sutcliffe and Darren Maddy kept Yorkshire at bay in the morning with a 76 stand in 25 overs for the second wicket before both fell with the score on 93, Sutcliffe edging Richard Dawson to Matthew Elliott at slip and Maddy falling lbw to the medium pace of Craven who picked his first wicket in first class cricket.

But it was straight after lunch that Leicestershire really hit trouble in a fiery burst from Sidebottom who removed Stevens' off-stump and two overs later had Ashley Wright nibbling a catch to Craven before bowling Phil DeFreitas first ball.

Srinath narrowly avoided contact with the hat-trick delivery and the innings may have been wrapped up quickly if Elliott had not dropped the Indian at slip with the score on 171-7.

Burns and Srinath stepped on the accelerator, the latter slamming both Dawson and Andy Gray for mid-wicket sixes before the spree was ended by the return of Sidebottom, whose second ball trapped Burns lbw for a spirited 59.

Skipper Richard Blakey continued to make shrewd changes and Kirby came back to bowl Srinath for 52 off 89 balls before ending the innings by yorking Devon Malcolm.

Craven got Yorkshire's second innings moving rapidly until he was caught behind for 40.

Chris Taylor soon followed but Elliott and Craig White stopped the wobble with a 61 stand before former Yorkshire left-armer Richard Stemp bowled Elliott for his new county.

Updated: 12:35 Friday, September 06, 2002