Gale and Rudolph lead easy Yorkshire win

Yorkshire 150 for 1 beat Leicestershire 148 for 8 by nine wickets
Scorecard

Andrew Gale and Jacques Rudolph both hit half-centuries as Yorkshire Carnegie raced to a crushing nine-wicket win over Leicestershire Foxes in their Friends Provident t20 clash at Grace Road.

Having restricted the Foxes to 148 for 8, Yorkshire knocked off the runs with 17 balls to spare to claim their third win in the competition and send the Foxes to their fourth defeat and their third in a row at home.

Yorkshire captain Gale hammered an unbeaten 65 off 42 balls, while South African Rudolph slammed 53 off 37 balls, with two sixes and four other boundaries. They took the game beyond the Foxes' reach with an opening stand of 103 in 12 overs, setting the tempo by scoring 64 off the six overs of power play.

It was a blistering exhibition of stroke play against some mediocre bowling from the home side. Rudolph, having already hit left-arm spinner Claude Henderson for a six, repeated the dose to reach his fifty off 34 balls before finally falling to a leg-side stumping by Paul Nixon off the bowling of James Benning.

But that brought in Herschelle Gibbs, who joined Gale in another free-scoring partnership that took Yorkshire to victory with time to spare. Gale, having reached fifty off 34 balls with seven boundaries, hit the winning runs with a cut to the boundary off Wayne White, while Gibbs contributed a quickfire 29 that included a trademark six off Jigar Naik plus four other boundaries.

It was a comfortable victory for Yorkshire, who had bowled tidily after the Foxes had won the toss.

Only Brad Hodge, with 43 which was his best score of the competition so far, and James Taylor, who hit a sparkling 60 off 42 balls, provided any real resistance as the Foxes lost four wickets in the final two overs of the innings, scoring just eight runs.

Tino Best claimed 2for 26, and Richard Pyrah took 2 for 19 as the Yorkshire attack kept a firm grip on the match. There was also an impressive four overs from Tim Bresnan, who finished with one for 21 to confirm his readiness to join up with the England one-day squad for the forthcoming series with Australia.

The only black mark for Yorkshire was a three-point penalty imposed on bowler Steven Patterson who had to be taken out of the attack in his final over after being no-balled twice for head-high bouncers.