YORKSHIRE VIKINGS were beaten for the first time in this year’s Royal London One-Day Cup after a nail-biting finish against Surrey.

Set 266 to win at the Oval, the Vikings fell just six runs short of their victory target as they slumped to 259 for seven despite another fine innings from Gary Ballance.

In the end, it came down to the final over, but with 14 runs needed from it, Tom Curran held his nerve to help Surrey over the line.

It was a frustrating end to a match that Yorkshire should have won. Despite losing the toss, they restricted their hosts to 265 for eight, before Ballance struck his second half-century in a row since being dropped by England to put the Vikings on course for victory.

However, after battling hard against some disciplined bowling to make 77, he fell with Yorkshire still 22 runs short and there was no way back.

“It was disappointing not to have finished it off,” admitted Ballance after the defeat.

“If we could have got a few more boundaries in the last few overs it would have been an easy victory and a perfect chase, but it did not happen.”

“We would have liked to have restricted them to 20 or 30 less to be honest and that would have given us a better chance.”

The fact Yorkshire did not do that was mostly due to Curran as well. Before his excellent death bowling, he had also impressed with the bat for Surrey.

Two wickets apiece for Steven Patterson, Glen Maxwell, Matthew Fisher and Karl Carver had reduced them to 187 for seven at one stage, before the 20-year old came together with Zafar Ansari for a crucial partnership.

Together, they added 66 runs to Surrey’s total off only 45 balls, with Curran making 44 and Ansari eventually unbeaten on 66.

Yorkshire were still favourites at this stage as they set about their modest victory target, but things started badly when Andrew Gale was trapped lbw by Sam Curran for only three.

Alex Lees and Glen Maxwell steadied the ship as the Vikings moved onto 74 for one. However, when they both departed for 28 and 55 respectively, the nerves kicked in.

With the run-rate rising, Jack Leaning was the next to go as he fell to Gareth Batty for 29, before Andy Hodd picked out Batty off Curran for 25.

Ballance was now the only hope. However, Yorkshire needed 50 off 37 balls by this stage and when he presented Ben Foakes with an easy catch off Zafar Ansari, the game was up.

Tim Bresnan, Liam Plunkett and Steven Patterson did their best, but Surrey always looked in control as they impressively closed the game out.

Yorkshire’s next match in the competition is against Worcestershire today.

Ballance added: “It is a very important game because we have not started badly in this competition and if we can get a win then we are right back in it.”

“The games are coming thick and fast in this competition and we have seven games in eleven days. That means there is a chance we can get on a roll.”