YORKSHIRE will head into their last seven Specsavers County Championship matches 25 points behind leaders Middlesex with a game in hand after drawing with Surrey yesterday.

The champions, now fourth in Division One, were unable to pull off what would have been a remarkable day four victory in good batting conditions.

The loss of 142 overs to rain across the first two days at the Oval proved key.

But at least Yorkshire were able to take 13 points, the maximum haul for a draw, from their sixth stalemate in nine matches this summer.

Replying to Surrey’s first-innings 267, they replied with 407 just after lunch thanks mainly to Adam Lyth’s excellent 202.

It was his fourth career double century, and it meant a lead of 140 with a minimum of 52 overs remaining in the day.

Azeem Rafiq struck in the ninth over with his first ball when he had Rory Burns caught and bowled, leaving the score at 20-1.

But struggling Surrey held on with a great deal of comfort as they reached 106-1 from 38 overs when the players shook hands at 5pm.

Coach Jason Gillespie said: "When we spoke before play, Andrew Gale said 'if we paint a picture of the perfect day four it would be for us to get maximum batting points and look to put Surrey under pressure'.

“The batting side of it worked a treat, but unfortunately we couldn't make an impact as they batted very well.

"I think the best result we could conjure up happened.

“To get maximum bonus points out of the game, a solid draw, taking into account the weather, it's a pretty decent result I reckon.

“The way the weather is, we can't do anything about that. We'll bank these points and move on.”

Yorkshire began day four on 207-3 in their first innings, with Lyth 116 not out.

He and night-watchman Steve Patterson, who made 51, went on to share a 91-run stand for the fourth wicket in a positive start to proceedings.

With bonus points still up for grabs, it was no surprise that Yorkshire did not take a gung-ho approach to their batting before lunch, where they reached at 330-6 from 97 overs.

That only came afterwards when Lyth and Liam Plunkett united.

Lyth reached his double off 290 balls with his fifth six - to third-man against Tom Curran.

Plunkett hit two sixes in one over against left-arm spinner Zafar Ansari on the way to 37 off 20 balls, but he was the first of the last four wickets to fall for 19 in the search for quick runs.

Lyth top-edged a catch behind against Stuart Meaker the ball after reaching 200.

With the pitch slow and not offering much assistance for the seamers, Andrew Gale had used three spinners inside the first nine overs of Surrey’s second innings.

And Rafiq had immediate success courtesy of a leading edge from Burns.

Unfortunately for Yorkshire, Ansari and Dominic Sibley shared an unbroken 86.

Wicketkeeper Andrew Hodd even bowled an over of leg-spin at the end as Gale took on wicketkeeping duties.

Yorkshire’s next Championship match is against second-placed Warwickshire at Headingley, starting August 4. They will have completed both of their 20 and 50-over competition group stages by then.