Matthew Elliott again proved to be the perfect replacement for Darren Lehmann with a fighting innings of 92 at the Rose Bowl yesterday and although Yorkshire gained a first innings lead of only 11 over Hampshire, they finished the day poised to record their second consecutive victory in their fight to avoid relegation.

Hampshire lost four quick wickets towards the close and at stumps they were reeling on 91 for six, just 80 in front.

On his Championship debut for Yorkshire in the Roses clash at Old Trafford, Elliott just missed out on a century when he fell lbw for 83 and it was a similar story yesterday, Dimitri Mascarenhas trapping the Australian in front of his stumps after he had faced 182 balls and struck 13 beefy fours. Although Elliott is a naturally watchful and correct player, he wastes no opportunity to go on the attack and a feature of his batting was his firm straight driving.

He was not afraid to take a step or two down the pitch in order to attack Shaun Udal who bowled splendidly to take five for 69.

Although Elliott's innings spanned 65 overs, nobody else managed to stay for any length of time but McGrath was unlucky to play Udal on to his off-bail after helping Elliott add a breezy 56 in only 12 overs for the fourth wicket.

Michael Lumb had two stumps spectacularly plucked out of the ground by James Tomlinson and Gary Fellows then put on 65 with Elliott before falling to a catch at the third or fourth attempt by Mascarenhas at slip.

Yorkshire were conscious of the psychological advantage of a first innings lead and it was last man Ryan Sidebottom who stayed long enough with captain Richard Blakey to get them there.

Chris Silverwood batted but did not bowl because of his ankle injury and it was left to Sidebottom to split the opening pair by pinning Jason Laney lbw. Then McGrath came on and at 53 he moved one away from Neil Johnson and Elliott scooped up the catch at slip.

Just as John Crawley and Robin Smith were looking set until stumps the game swung dramatically Yorkshire's way with three wickets going down in five balls for one run.

Steven Kirby started the slide by getting Smith lbw and two balls later nightwatchman James Hamblin edged to Blakey. In the next over, John Francis went back on his stumps to Richard Dawson and was lbw to bag a pair and Hampshire were in disarray.