Yorkshire's hopes of qualifying for the Friends Life t20 quarter-finals suffered another blow with an 18-run Duckworth Lewis defeat against Leicestershire at Headingley last night.

The White Rose county's seventh North Division defeat, and their fourth in five matches, was fashioned by a brutal 96 not out from Australian Andrew McDonald, who hit nine fours and three sixes.

The Victorian's career best underpinned his side's total of 191-4 from 19 overs after a 45-minute rain delay accounted for the loss of one over.

Yorkshire's target was then boosted to 193 from 19 by DL.

But, despite a bright start to their reply, they were left with too much to do.

Captain Andrew Gale and Joe Sayers, who top-scored with 27 off 20 balls, shared 34 for the first wicket in just over four overs, but he fell caught and bowled to part-time off-spinner Josh Cobb's first ball.

Yorkshire then lost wickets at regular intervals as dismissals were shared around the visitors' pace attack.

Left-arm spinner Claude Henderson also claimed the two wickets of Sayers and Gerard Brophy.

A sixth-wicket stand of 42 inside four overs between Gary Ballance and Jonny Bairstow then kept Yorkshire interested, but off-spinner Jigar Naik took three wickets in the 16th over to virtually end the chase.

It was Naik's only over, and he had Ballance stumped, Rich Pyrah caught at long-on and Adil Rashid caught at long-off by McDonald.

It was one of three catches for star of the show McDonald, whose team have now secured their qualification for the quarter-finals.

Earlier, McDonald and opening partner Cobb got the visitors, second in the table, off to a flyer after Gale had elected to bowl first.

They took Rashid and Ryan Sidebottom to the cleaners, taking 52 runs off the first four overs and sharing 58 for the first wicket inside six overs.

Rashid ended up conceding 58 runs from his four overs, which amounted to the most expensive spell bowled by a spinner in Yorkshire's Twenty20 history and their third overall.

The leg-spinner even conceded 21 in the 13th over of the innings.

Left-arm spinner David Wainwright, recalled from his loan spell at Derbyshire after Azeem Rafiq badly tore his hamstring in Sunday's defeat against Nottinghamshire, was the pick of the White Rose attack.

He struck alongside Pyrah, Sidebottom and Ajmal Shahzad, only conceding 24 from his allotted four overs.

McDonald was helped out by cameos from Cobb (26), Will Jefferson (28), Pakistani Abdul Razzaq (16) and Wayne White (12), who hit the last two balls of the innings from Sidebottom for six and four.

This was McDonald's sixth half-century of the competition so far, and his second against Yorkshire following the 59 he got at Grace Road last week.

The all-rounder is now the country's leading run-scorer with 455 from 13 matches.

Yorkshire have to win their remaining three fixtures to have any chance of qualifying for the knockout stages. Two of those are against rivals Durham, the first being at the Riverside tomorrow night.

SCORECARD

Yorkshire v Leicestershire
At Headingley Carnegie

Leicestershire
J J Cobb c Sidebottom b Pyrah 26
A B McDonald not out 96
W I Jefferson c Sidebottom b Wainwright 28
Abdul Razzaq c Lyth b Sidebottom 16
J du Toit c Bairstow b Shahzad 2
W A White not out 12
Extras (b4 lb1 w6 pens 0) 11
Total 4 wkts Innings Complete (19 overs) 191
Fall: 1-58 2-105 3-157 4-164
Did Not Bat: M A G Boyce, P A Nixon, C W
Henderson, J K H Naik, H F Gurney.
Bowling: A U Rashid 4-0-58-0. Sidebottom
4-0-45-1. Shahzad 4-0-33-1. Pyrah 3-0-26-
1. Wainwright 4-0-24-1.

Yorkshire
A W Gale c & b Cobb 20
J J Sayers c Abdul Razzaq b Henderson 27
A Shahzad c Nixon b Gurney 15
A Lyth c McDonald b White 10
G L Brophy c McDonald b Henderson 22
G S Ballance st Nixon b Naik 25
J M Bairstow c Cobb b Abdul Razzaq 25
R M Pyrah c Cobb b Naik 0
A U Rashid c McDonald b Naik 0
R J Sidebottom not out 11
D J Wainwright not out 5
Extras (b2 lb2 w8 nb2 pens 0) 14
Total 9 wkts Innings Complete (19 overs) 174
Fall: 1-34 2-53 3-75 4-87 5-103 6-145
7-146 8-147 9-162
Bowling: Abdul Razzaq 4-0-44-1. Gurney
4-0-19-1. Cobb 1-0-14-1. White 3-0-27-1.
Henderson 4-0-35-2. McDonald 2-0-28-0.
Naik 1-0-3-3.
Leicestershire beat Yorkshire by 18 runs (D/L Method)