Left-hand spinner Gurman Randhawa, above, was on a hat-trick twice in Yorkshire's three-day Second Eleven “friendly” against Lancashire at St Anne's – but a freezingly cold last evening went the way of the Red Rose with one ball to spare.

Lancashire, set a run chase of 276 in a minimum of 45 overs, slumped to 113-5 as Randhawa clinched 4-9 in 14 balls and was on a hat-trick for the second time, but Steven Parry, 81, and Liam Livingstone, 44, added 96 in 81 balls to get the target back on track. Then Aaran Lilley - no relation to Yorkshire's Alex - saw his team over the line with 35 not out from 21 balls.

Yorkshire took their overnight 169-2 to 299-7 before declaring, but it rained at 12.30 and the players took an early lunch. Twenty overs were lost before play restarted at 2.25pm. Adam Lyth went without addition to his overnight 80, but skipper Azeem Rafiq advanced to 85, supported by Alex Lilley with 50 from 43 deliveries, including seven fours and a six.

Oliver Hannon-Dalby despatched Henry Thompson with the third ball of the innings, and   Randhawa bagged the very dangerous Andrea Agathangelou for 35. Agathangelou could well play First Class cricket for Lancashire sooner rather than later, and he will join a small band of players with Greek heritage, including the famous Xenonphon Balaskas.

Three more wickets went down, but then the game went away from Yorkshire with a Parry-Livingstone stand, and victory was achieved for the Red Rose at 6.21pm on a freezing, dull evening.

Day 2: Skipper Rafiq and Lyth turned a situation that Yorkshire Seconds had badly let slip back into profit. Cricket is the most enthralling game in the world, but it never ceases to spring surprises...often when you do not really want them.

The ninth Lancashire wicket went down at 201, when Yorkshire had taken five wickets for 24 runs in 33 minutes and were looking at a lead of 60-plus. Some 80 minutes later they still had not taken that final wicket and were 24 behind.

Alex Davies and Glenn Querl, a former MCC Young Cricketer, smashed the bowling to all parts, adding exactly 100 in 80 minutes with 11 fours and five sixes between them.

So Yorkshire began with a small deficit, which soon looked larger as their first-innings centurion, Alex Lees, lost his off-stump to Querl with two on the board. A kind of Andrew Strauss in reverse. Callum Geldart again got the scoreboard moving, and Yorkshire were in credit by the time he was dismissed for 21 at 43-2.

Enter skipper Azeem Rafiq to partner Adam Lyth, who avoided a pair. I remarked that Azeem did not need to play a quickfire innings, and he did not: he adapted to the situation, and the score began to grow.

Any bad balls were despatched, but the pair were content to play singles whenever necessary. By the close Yorkshire had scored at 4.12 runs per over, and were leading by 145 runs with eight wickets and a day left.

We hope for a third good day with what could be three very interesting sessions.

I would advise all visitors that TCS Live Scores is now working again, and a full scorecard will appear as per the instructions at the foot of this webpage. Apologies for the recent interrupted service. The glories of advanced technology!

Day 1: Lees completed a superb, grafting 100 under blue skies and sunshine as Yorkshire Seconds actually managed a full day's play against Lancashire at St Anne's.

I will never say another wrong word about the Lancashire weather. Play began at 11am, Lancashire having won the toss and asked Yorkshire to bat. Lees and Lyth walked out to open..but Lyth was soon back, dismissed for 0 with no runs on the board.

Lees was circumspect, taking 28 minutes to score his first run, but he and Callum Geldart began to get the board moving. Once Geldart was out skipper Azeem Rafiq came to the crease, and immediately took the game by the scruff of the neck.

Rafiq scored a rapid 35 in 44 deliveries with three fours and a six,  including one of the few cover-drives seen all day. He looked superb, but the captain`s departure and another quick wicket as Jack Leaning found life hard on a low, greenish track, meant that at 99-4 the innings could go either way.

Lees had advanced to 37, and now he was looking more comfortable. Edward Wilson, brought from Huddersfield as wicket-keeper Gerard Brophy had a mild hamstring strain, stayed with his captain to add 78 for the fifth wicket, Eddie's contribution being a solid 25 - echoes of his 21 with David Girling at Marton in mid-April against Durham.

Things started to hot up. Lees completed his 100 from 221 deliveries in just under five hours with nine fours, but he fell two balls later.

Alex Lilley made an entertaining 30 in 52 balls with three fours, but the icing on the cake was the unbroken eightth-wicket stand between Gurman Randhawa  with 32 at a run a ball with six well-struck boundaries and Moin Ashraf with18 from 17 including the best shot of the day, an on-driven maximum off Naqqash Tahir.

Yorkshire declared, leaving Lancashire 45 minutes batting, in which they advanced to 32-0, but not without edges over the slips.

The Second Eleven scores are available on match days via Total Cricket Live Scores. Here's how to keep up with scorer and website correspondent HOWARD CLAYTON:

www.totalcricketscorer.co.uk

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HOWARD CLAYTON