Somerset's Arul Suppiah takes the game away from Yorkshire

As gambles go, Yorkshire have not had a great deal of success at Taunton. In the past two seasons they have risked declarations in vain and this time they may have thrown away the chance to try a third time. At the close of a surprisingly long day, considering the dire forecasts, Yorkshire were 155 ahead with four wickets standing after an undefeated 80 from Jonny Bairstow – to go with his 136 in the first innings – and half-centuries from captain Andrew Gale and opener Joe Root. With the wicket still playing well, despite starting with a definite tinge of green, the question now is how many Gale can get rather than how many he needs to tempt Somerset. Some gambles have paid off. First the umpires, Nigel Llong and Michael Gough, insisted that play could start, with eight overs lost, despite black clouds sweeping in and remarkably that was the way it remained almost all day despite predictions of either heavy rain or showers all day. The 400 spectators, well wrapped up against the wind, were also well rewarded for chancing their arms by even bothering to turn up, getting an entertaining day where fortunes swung to and fro to the very end. Yorkshire kept the lead down to 94, mopping up the long Somerset tail despite James Hildreth's attempts to nurse them through. The 26-year-old, who captained the Lions against Sri Lanka last week was on 87 when he became a rather lucky fourth wicket for Adil Rashid. Then, just as the winds really began to build, Somerset made a couple of early inroads before Gale and Root turned things the way of the white rose. With Root a dogged companion, Gale went off at a canter, getting to 50 off 56 balls. There were five boundaries, the least impressive a six that needed a particularly strong gust to carry the old pavilion boundary. This season has not been particularly kind to Gale. In 13 first-class innings it was the third time he had reached 50 and just when he was looking good for something better, Peter Trego bowled the perfect leg-stump yorker. Root and Bairstow then added 107 and even when the opener was a bit late on a length ball from Lewis Gregory, Yorkshire's fate seemed in their own hands before two wickets in four balls for the part-time spin of Arul Suppiah left everything up in the air.