Lancashire v Yorkshire (Twenty20 Cup)

YORKSHIRE’S brittle batting continues to haunt them, and this time it cost them the cross-Pennine bragging rights after a hefty six-wicket Twenty20 Cup loss to Lancashire at Old Trafford last night.

It nearly cost them an opening day win against Leicestershire on Monday, but not even Ajmal Shahzad could save them as they crashed to 66-6 before rain forced the players off the field.

Only three players made it into double figures, with Michael Vaughan top scorer on 36, as the Tykes were then restricted to just 105-8 from their 20 overs.

South African Test batsman Ashwell Prince, playing just the 13th Twenty20 match of his career, top scored for the Red Rose with 44 off 36 balls to help secure the win with 27 balls to spare.

Yorkshire’s batting has blighted them in all forms of cricket this season, much to the frustration of director of professional cricket Martyn Moxon and captain Anthony McGrath.

You had a fair idea that it was not going to be their night from the very moment Andrew Gale plonked the first ball of the match – a waist high full toss from very occasional leg-spinner Francois du Plessis – straight into the hands of Steven Croft down at deep square-leg.

And later Vaughan’s promising innings was ended by a stunning catch from Croft, pouched one-handed high above his head at deep mid-wicket.

Vaughan walked off with a Twenty20 career best off 31 balls, but only Rich Pyrah’s 26 not out off 29 balls helped him out.

Spin, in the form of du Plessis, Gary Keedy and Stephen Parry (3-20 from four overs), accounted for six of the eight Yorkshire wickets.

Yorkshire, only fielding David Wainwright and Vaughan who could bowl spin, did, however, fight back in some respects with ball in hand.

Deon Kruis claimed a couple of wickets, those of Paul Horton and Croft for 21 off nine balls, while Wainwright got forced in-form du Plessis to chip to McGrath at mid-off.

At that point, with the hosts at 41-3 in the sixth over of their reply, Yorkshire had a sniff of an opportunity.

But they were soon snuffed out by a fourth-wicket alliance of 60 between Prince and Tom Smith (22 not out).

Kruis finished as the pick of Yorkshire’s bowling with figures of 2-18 from 3.2 overs, while Shahzad and Wainwright both recorded 1-22 from three.

Prince departed to a superb catch from McGrath, caught left handed at short midwicket, in the 15th over. It was nothing more than consolation for McGrath, Shahzad and Yorkshire.

Hindsight is a wonderful thing, but perhaps things would have been different had Yorkshire selected another spinner, either Adil Rashid or Azeem Rafiq.

Tim Bresnan will be available for the next fixture, a rematch with Lancashire at Headingley on Friday, after his Test match and one-day international spell with England.

It remains to be seen how long the White Rose will have Bresnan available for because he must be a leading candidate to replace Andrew Flintoff in the World Twenty20 squad should the allrounder not recover in time from knee surgery.

SCORECARD

Lancashire v Yorkshire
At Old Trafford.
Yorkshire Innings
A W Gale c Croft b du Plessis 0
A McGrath b Keedy 9
M P Vaughan c Croft b Parry 36
J A Rudolph b Keedy 9
A Lyth c Horton b Chapple 0
R M Pyrah not out 26
Naved ul-Hasan lbw b Parry 1
A Shahzad c Croft b Parry 2
S M Guy c Horton b Chapple 11
D J Wainwright not out 3
Extras (b3 lb1 w2 nb2 pens 0) 8
Total 8 wkts Innings Complete (20
overs) 105
Fall: 1-0 2-33 3-53 4-55 5-63 6-66 7-78
8-94
Did Not Bat: G J Kruis
du Plessis 2-0-4-1. Smith 2-0-8-0. Mahmood
4-0-26-0. Chapple 4-0-20-2. Keedy 4-0-23-
2. Parry 4-0-20-3.

Lancashire Innings
P J Horton c Lyth b Kruis 11
T C Smith not out 22
S J Croft c Wainwright b Kruis 21
F du Plessis c McGrath b Wainwright 1
A G Prince c McGrath b Shahzad 44
M J Chilton not out 2
Extras (w4 nb2 pens 0) 6
Total 4 wkts (15.3 overs) 107
Fall: 1-18 2-40 3-41 4-101
Did Not Bat: G D Cross, G Chapple, S D
Parry, S I Mahmood, G Keedy.
Kruis 3.3-0-18-2. Naved-ul-Hasan 3-0-25-0.
Shahzad 3-0-22-1. Wainwright 3-0-22-1.
Pyrah 2-0-11-0. Vaughan 1-0-9-0.

Lancashire beat Yorkshire by 6 wkts