Despite losing their first game in this competition, Yorkshire have hit back well with wins over Derbyshire and then against holders Durham at Headingley Carnegie on Monday and they are now only one point behind table toppers Lancashire with a game in hand.

They can therefore put themselves in a strong position to qualify if they can make it a hat-trick of victories at Old Trafford on Sunday in a 50-over game starting at 12 noon.

The old rivals go into the match on the back of contrasting fortunes with the Red Rose men suffering a shock defeat against Scotland on Monday while the Tykes were in excellent form to earn revenge against Durham who had beaten them in their opening game.

Captain Darren Gough was the initial star as he rolled back the years to claim the vital wickets of England men Phil Mustard and Paul Collingwood. He also had Neil McKenzie caught by Jacques Rudolph and his figures of 3-31 showed he could still be a force to be reckoned with in this form of cricket.

With the improving Richard Pyrah also taking three wickets and Adil Rashid two, Durham were all out for 185 in 4.3 overs short of their full compliment.

Yorkshire's reply started positively with Andrew Gale blasting 68 off only 50 balls and Michael Vaughan scoring a quick 22. Rudolph carried on the good work with 34 and Anthony McGrath saw the side home by a five-wicket margin with an unbeaten 45.

It was more of a struggle for Yorkshire in their second County Championship game as they ended up clinging on for a draw against Nottinghamshire.

Poor weather on the first two days dictated to some extent where the match went, but Gough's men almost paid the price for batting too slowly in their first innings when it had taken them 121 overs to compile 299 and that despite a fine 104 not out from Rudolph.

Notts took two overs less to reply with 422 and build up a 123-run lead, although they were struggling at 115-5 at one stage and the Tykes were kicking themselves for bowling poorly in one session in particular on Friday afternoon.

In the end it could have been worse for Yorkshire as Tim Bresnan weighed in with three wickets in 11 balls to bring the visitors' innings to a close and another 30 runs or so could have made all the difference to the final result.

Yorkshire began their second innings knowing they had no chance of winning and in attempting to bat out the final afternoon they made a real mess of things in collapsing from 109-2 to 168-8. They even had to make injured bowler Morne Morkel bat with a runner in a bid to stave off defeat.

Bresnan (12 not out) and Gough (8 not out) saw them through, however, and the game was finished with the Tykes on 187-8. They will have to play substantially better when the Championship resumes next week at Durham and are hoping that South African pace bowler Morkel's leg injury only proves temporary and that he will be able to take his place in the side.