A biting wind and leaden skies brought autumn to Colwyn Bay yesterday but Yorkshire's hopes of an Indian summer were kept alive by a brilliant unbeaten innings of 127 from captain Anthony McGrath which forced a draw with Glamorgan after all had seemed lost.

Set to make 381 off what was ultimately 94 overs, Yorkshire capsized to 124 for six but then came the determined fightback which saw them end the match on 193 for seven and snatch a further four points from the stalemate to keep them in with a slender chance of making that third promotion spot, now held by Glamorgan.

Quarter-of-an-hour still remained when Glamorgan were happy to call it a day and come off for bad light.

McGrath, after almost playing his first ball into his stumps, was in a class apart from his batting colleagues and while they floundered their captain peeled off some sumptuous strokes which showed England just what an exciting batsman he can be.

But later, McGrath put down anchor to produce an innings of two parts which will rank among the all-time greats in Yorkshire's history.

The rot started in the third over of the Yorkshire chase when Matthew Wood was lbw on the backfoot to Michael Kasprowicz but McGrath hit back straight away by lashing the Australian paceman for four scorching boundaries in five deliveries.

These blows sent Yorkshire in to lunch quite optimistic at 42 for one in 11 overs but early in the afternoon New Zealand captain Stephen Fleming was lbw to Dean Cosker for 16 to bring a disappointing end to his Championship stay.

Michael Lumb, forced back on his stumps, was another Croft lbw victim, before McGrath went to his 50 out of 72 for three from 59 balls with ten boundaries.

Yuvraj Singh, in his final innings for Yorkshire, was unable to end on a bright note after what has been a disastrous engagement with the county club. His feet a long way from the ball he drove Croft tamely to Cosker at cover to fly home today with a total of 135 Championship runs from ten completed innings at an average of 13.5.

The slump continued as Richard Blakey was lbw to Kasprowicz after being in for 24 balls without scoring but with the light deteriorating, Glamorgan were forced to revert to an all spin attack and stick to it for the remainder of the match.