It turned out to be a disastrous day both for Yorkshire and Michael Vaughan at Grace Road yesterday as Leicestershire dramatically turned the tables to put themselves firmly in charge of the Championship match.

Play began with Yorkshire confidently expecting to build upon the advantage they had gained on the first day but it ended with them in grave danger of crashing to their first defeat of the season in any competition.

After dipping to 45 for six at one stage they were bowled out for 151, their lowest score in two seasons, to leave themselves trailing by 127 runs on the first innings, and when Leicestershire closed the second day on 183 for five their lead was an emphatic 310.

The highest winning score Yorkshire have ever made is 331 against Middlesex at Lord's in 1910 and they seem almost certain to have an even bigger mountain to climb this time.

One of the six Yorkshire wickets to fall in 70 minutes of mayhem was that of Vaughan for only nine, leaving the England captain still searching for his true form with time running out before the Test series with Bangladesh.

Having come in to save a hat-trick, Vaughan got off the mark first ball but after a couple of edged boundaries he was palpably lbw to a good delivery from David Masters which nipped back and kept low.

The main damage, however, was inflicted by 36-year-old paceman, Ottis Gibson, who grabbed four wickets for nine runs in 29 balls to finish with his second best figures for Leicestershire of six for 51.

Although the ball moved around a bit for Gibson it was even more difficult to understand why Yorkshire got into such a mess than it had been to work out why Leicestershire had batted quite feebly the previous day.

Matthew Wood and Phil Jaques began confidently enough with an opening stand of 27 but the picture changed rapidly as Wood was then caught behind and with his next ball Ottis had Anthony McGrath taken low at second slip.

Vaughan pushed the hat-trick ball into the covers for a quick single, only to perish off his 14th ball and with the score unchanged on 44 Jaques edged Gibson to Darren Robinson at first slip, the collapse continuing as Ian Harvey played Gibson into his stumps and Craig White got an inside edge against Masters.

Yorkshire's embarrassment was eased by Ismail Dawood and Richard Dawson in a lively partnership of 61 in 15 overs but Dawson sliced

to gully where he was brilliantly caught by the diving Robinson.

Dawood continued to bat with some style after lunch and when he finally ran out of partners he had made 62 from 88 balls. Dinesh Mongia led the way for Leicestershire in their second innings with an attractive 70 from 115 balls with nine boundaries, five Yorkshire bowlers each claiming a wicket as the home side strengthened their position.