Yorkshire’s promotion aspirations suffered a major setback after they failed to beat Derbyshire in the LV= County Championship at Headingley.

The game ended in a draw yesterday and it means that for the first time this season the Tykes’ hopes of a top-two finish in Division Two are no longer in their own hands.

With just three matches to go, they have slipped to third in the table after Hampshire beat Northamptonshire to move second.

Yorkshire are now ten points adrift of the south coast side and 21 points behind leaders Derbyshire, who have also played a game less.

“We have a lot of work to do now to finish top of the pile,” admitted captain Andrew Gale after the conclusion in Leeds.

“I’ll take promotion whether it’s first or second though. We have three games left and I think if we can win two out of three then we’ll be in a good place.”

Despite forcing Derbyshire to follow on 152 runs adrift, the Tykes were denied what could have been a vital victory as an unbeaten century from Usman Khawaja proved decisive.

Khawaja’s innings of 110 not out saw the Falcons reach 190-5 in their second innings, 38 ahead, before the two teams shook hands at around 5.30pm with no prospect of the game producing a positive result.

It was a valiant effort from Yorkshire to try and force a result in another rain-hit game after they had bowled Derbyshire out for 268 first time around in the opening hour of the final day.

Gale said: “Khawaja played well but the most frustrating thing is we’ve lost 104 overs to the weather. It is difficult to win at Headingley without four days of good weather.”

Yorkshire’s next Championship fixture is against Gloucestershire at Scarborough, starting a week on Tuesday.