The situation is starting to look bad with regards to Yorkshire’s County Championship position.

Three consecutive defeats have seen them nosedive into an LV Division One relegation battle. And all this after they were two points clear at the top of the league following a pulsating win against Somerset at Taunton at the beginning of June.

I spoke to Anthony McGrath just before the Pro40 win against Surrey and he stressed that the Twenty20 debacle has had nothing to do with their Championship form.

He admitted that it obviously could be used as an excuse but said that there was no way that it would be.

Wednesday’s game against Surrey is now absolutely crucial to Yorkshire’s top-flight future. It is the equivalent of a relegation six-pointer in football.

Yorkshire still have an 11-point gap over second bottom Surrey, who occupy one of the relegation places, but a fourth defeat would be catastrophic.

Let’s just hope that McGrath has recovered from the hamstring injury that forced him to miss the defeat at Nottinghamshire last week.

It also remains to be seen whether Darren Gough will be fit enough to play against Surrey.

On a brighter note, at least left-hander Adam Lyth is in impressive touch.

The 20-year-old from Whitby hit his maiden first-class ton at Trent Bridge on Friday – and he currently looks the form batsman.

Whilst all around him were crumbling in pursuit of an unlikely 403 to win the game, at least the Whitby-born star was able to complete a 218-ball ton.