Yorkshire face an uphill struggle not to lose only their second LV= County Championship fixture of the season after a difficult day all round against Essex.

It began with a poor performance with the bat for the Tykes at the County Ground before a blistering partnership of 199 between England’s Alastair Cook and Ravi Bopara really put the hosts in control at Chelmsford.

Their efforts mean the home side will take a commanding second-innings lead of 304 runs into the final day, with seven wickets still remaining.

“It was a tough day,“ admitted director of cricket Martyn Moxon at the close.

“I think it is a pretty good pitch though, so tomorrow we need a couple of our batsmen to make big scores.”

The importance of Yorkshire getting something from this match has added significance now after second- placed Nottinghamshire romped to a ten-wicket win over Warwickshire.

Stuart Broad did the damage, with remarkable figures of 8-52, and by picking up 23 points from the contest they have wiped out the 21-point advantage the Tykes had over them going into this round of fixtures.

However, if Yorkshire want to reinstate the gap at the top when Essex do declare on the final day, they will have to show far more stubbornness with the bat than they did on day three in East Anglia.

Resuming on 227-5, there was real hope that they could get close to the 399 which Essex had posted, but in reality they were never going to trouble it.

Only Bradford-born Adil Rashid showed any real resistance with a composed 52 not out as Gerard Brophy, Tim Bresnan, Steven Patterson and Oliver Hannon-Dalby were all dismissed with only 97 runs being added to the score.

It meant the home side had an innings advantage of 75 and, although Bresnan, with the first ball of Essex’s reply, and Patterson quickly reduced the hosts to 15-2, there would be no answer to Bopara and Cook’s onslaught.

Helped by the fact that Bradfordian Anthony McGrath dropped them both in the final session, they moved the score on to 214-2, until Bopara was eventually dismissed late on by Rashid for 102.

Cook is still unbeaten on 90 though, with Matt Walker on 13, and all eyes will be on Essex now to see when they will declare to set Yorkshire a victory target.