OFF-spinner Adam Lyth took his first wicket of the season in the opening over of the third day’s play at Headingley.

Middlesex’s batsmen hit back to build a respectable lead by lunch, when they had been bowled out for 229 - leaving Yorkshire needing 213 to win the LV= County Championhip match.

Lyth had Dawid Malan caught at slip by Tim Bresnan for 35 to give Yorkshire an excellent start to the day. But the morning was also marked by a series of small but useful stands that made the outcome of this game difficult to predict.

John Simpson made 15 before he chopped Bresnan onto his stumps and Ollie Rayner hit five fours in his 28, which helped him add 47 for the seventh wicket with James Franklin.

But Middlesex then lost their last four wickets for 23 runs in 5.2 overs, with Patterson having Rayner caught at short cover by Gary Ballance to start the collapse.

That subsidence was a triumph for Will Rhodes, who took the last three wickets in 14 balls to finish with 3-42. The Yorkshire Academy player had James Harris lbw for five, Toby Roland-Jones brilliantly caught by Ballance at midwicket for four and then bowled Tim Murtagh for 13.

That left Franklin not out on 55 and this Division One game remains too close to call.