Under the glare of television and in front of a capacity crowd, Yorkshire were made to blush the deepest red in the Twenty-20 Roses match at Old Trafford yesterday as Lancashire thrashed them by the embarrassing margin of 110 runs, the widest in the competition so far.

Faced with chasing a formidable target of 208 in gloomy light and knowing that Muttiah Muralitharan would be weaving his magic, Yorkshire crashed to 97 all out in 15 overs, their smallest ever score, just dipping below their previous worst of 102 for eight, also against Lancashire on the same ground two years ago.

Muralitharan did not disappoint the home fans, taking three wickets, as did Dominic Cork, but it was Australian Stuart Law who had the crowd roaring their delight by powering his way to an awesome century after Lancashire had been put in to bat, Yorkshire captain Craig White, probably wanting to delay the appearance of Muralitharan for as long as possible.

Law, with his opening partner, Mal Loye, flogged the bowling from the start as he dashed his way to his century off just 56 balls with 12 fours and three sixes.

With almost three overs to go, Law looked as if he could overtake the highest Twenty-20 score of 116 not out, held jointly by Worcestershire's Graeme Hick and Glamorgan's Ian Thomas, but two balls later he was caught at extra cover for 101.

Both Matthew Hoggard and Tim Bresnan suffered as the openers dashed up 106 together in only nine overs before Loye was bowled for 47 by the admirable Richard Dawson, who steered well clear of the carnage to end up with figures of 4-0-23-1.

Law was the more brutal of the two, smacking three of the four boundaries that came off Bresnan's first over and then belting three fours and a six off Hoggard as Lancashire galloped to 66 without loss in five overs.

What a limited-overs debut it turned out to be for Yorkshire leg-spinner Mark Lawson, a late replacement for Matthew Wood to give Yorkshire more spin options. The 19-year-old found himself entering the attack at 90 for none in seven overs and he was hammered for 53 in four overs but he still managed to keep his cool and he deservedly picked up the wicket of Brad Hodge as the Australian drove to Dawson at long on.

Yorkshire plummeted to 29 for five and it was only late resistance from Bresnan and Hoggard that eased Yorkshire past the competition's worst score of 67 by Sussex at Hove last year.

White said: "It got a bit spicy out there but we needed a good start facing a score like that and we were unable to capitalise. If we could play the game again I would probably have batted first on winning the toss."

Now Yorkshire must try to regain their confidence in time for tomorrow's match against Nottinghamshire at Headingley.