Bairstow and Root lead Yorkshire win

Yorkshire 231 for 3 beat Worcestershire 230 for 6 by six wickets
Scorecard

Jonny Bairstow hit a ferocious 80 and Joe Root added a watchful 62 as lowly Yorkshire clinched a six-wicket win against bottom side Worcestershire at Headingley in their final Clydesdale Bank League Group A match.

Bairstow plundered his runs from 67 deliveries, with six fours and four sixes, as Yorkshire chased down their target of 231 with 11 balls to spare. The wicketkeeper-batsman has notched a century and two half-centuries in his last three matches in the competition, and he and Root took the game away from Worcestershire with a rousing third-wicket partnership of 122 in 19 overs.

They came together at 51 for two after Joe Sayers, captaining Yorkshire for the first time in a limited-overs match, and Adam Lyth, had both fallen to paceman Nick Harrison.

Root was perfectly happy to play the supporting role while Bairstow launched himself into a series of stunning shots, thrashing Gareth Andrew high over mid-wicket for six and taking a six and two fours off consecutive balls from Harrison in an over which cost 17.

A cheeky reverse sweep by Root went for four before Bairstow cracked Moeen Ali for a mighty six over mid-on and drove with great power a boundary off leg-spin debutant Brett D'Oliveira, the grandson of Basil and son of Damian. Another four and six for Bairstow off Aneesh Kapil put Yorkshire well ahead of the asking rate, but Bairstow perished when he sliced the same bowler to D'Oliveira at backward point.

Root continued to look solid until he became D'Oliveira's maiden victim, caught at slip by Daryl Mitchell for 62 from 77 balls with three fours.

Yorkshire also had a debutant in 18-year-old left-hander Alex Lees, and he got off the mark second ball by driving D'Oliveira to the ropes, before leaving Gary Ballance to end the match with a six off Jack Shantry.

Put in to bat, Worcestershire were given a fine start by Moeen and Jack Manuel with a 56-run stand in nine overs, but they sagged in the middle and were guided to a respectable total by skipper Mitchell.

He finished unbeaten on 81 from 80 deliveries with eight fours - three of them in the final over from Moin Ashraf. Sayers made some inspired bowling changes with three different bowlers each claiming a wicket in the first over of spells.

Ajmal Shahzad, returning from an ankle injury, and Oliver Hannon-Dalby, were given the new ball but Moeen and Manuel shared three boundaries in Hannon-Dalby's initial over and runs continued to come so freely that 53 were on the board from 40 balls, Moeen hitting five fours and Manuel four.

The breakthrough was made when Ashraf came on and had Moeen cutting his second ball into Bairstow's gloves for 26, and Manuel soon followed for 32, caught on the cover boundary by Root off Steven Patterson.

Left-arm spinner David Wainwright also enjoyed a second-ball success as James Cameron lofted a catch to Hannon-Dalby at mid-off, and in the following over the first ball of a new spell by Hannon-Dalby pinned Alexei Kervezee lbw.

Mitchell and Kapil helped Worcestershire recover from 90 for four and although Kapil struck Root for a flat six over mid-wicket the off-spinner bowled tidily in tandem with Wainwright who enticed Kapil into sweeping a catch to Shahzad to end a 57-run.

Andrew drove Shahzad to long-on where he was well caught low down by Lyth to leave Worcestershire on 170 for six in the 34th over, but Ben Scott gave valuable support to Mitchell in the closing overs, the seventh-wicket pair putting on an unbroken 60.