Yorkshire’s hopes of distancing themselves from the County Championship relegation dogfight were dealt a blow in the evening session at Trent Bridge today.

Nottinghamshire recovered from losing five batsmen before tea to establish a first-innings lead of 45 with three wickets left.

The game had been dead level during the afternoon session after the Yorkshire attack sprang to life to reduce Notts from 76 for nought to 101 for three.

Richard Pyrah rewarded skipper Anthony McGrath for bringing him into the attack with wickets in successive overs.

He sharply stepped to his right to complete the excellent caught-and-bowled dismissal of Alex Hales for 35 and followed up to find some extra bounce that forced Mark Wagh to edge behind to Gerard Brophy for a duck.

Jonathan Bairstow produced his own display of individual brilliance soon after with an outstanding slip catch off Samit Patel. It was a low two-handed take to his right that he did well to stop, let alone hold.

Scott Newman started nervously but went on to excel for the hosts to prevent Yorkshire from forcing the issue with a knock of 79.

Then Matthew Hoggard tempted him with a bouncer that he tried to hook for six and only succeeded in finding Andrew Gale on the deep square-leg fence.

David Wainwright quickly found some unexpected turn to evade Ali Brown’s forward defensive and unearth his off-stump for a duck.

But from 153 for five, Notts came roaring back.

The hosts added another 150 before the close for the loss of just two more wickets, with Bilal Shafayat’s 66 the stand-out effort before he was bowled by Hoggard.

Earlier, Wainwright’s 37 helped the Tykes to two batting points in a ninth-wicket stand of 56 with Hoggard.