Rashid helps secure Roses victory
Spin twins Adil Rashid and Azeem Rafiq bowled Yorkshire to a breathtaking victory by 11 runs with five balls remaining in a tight Roses clash
17-Jun-2011
Spin twins Adil Rashid and Azeem Rafiq bowled Yorkshire to a breathtaking victory by 11 runs with five balls remaining in a tight Roses clash in the Friends Life t20 North Group at Headingley Carnegie.
Chasing a 179 target, Lancashire lost two wickets in Rafiq's first over before they were further hit by Rashid who claimed three wickets in five balls. Even then they were not quite down and out because Jordan Clark lashed Richard Pyrah for two sixes and a four off successive balls in the penultimate over which cost 24 runs.
These blows hurried Lancashire on to 167 for 9 but with 12 wanted off the final over, Gary Keedy attempted to run a bye off Ryan Sidebottom's first ball and wicketkeeper Jonny Bairstow threw into the stumps to run out Clark who had struck 38 from 18 deliveries with three fours and two sixes.
Yorkshire joyously celebrated a Roses double which leapfrogged them above their opponents in the table and at the same time boosted their chances of qualifying for the quarter-finals. It was Lancashire's third defeat in 10 days.
The heavy rain which had been forecast managed to hold off - much to the delight of the majority in the 13,000 crowd. Rashid finished with 4 for 26 - his third haul of three wickets or more in five matches - and Rafiq had 2 for 29 from his four overs but the Man-of-the-Match award went to Yorkshire captain Andrew Gale who held his side together with a well-judged 60 after they had been put in to bat.
He received excellent support from Bairstow in an opening stand of 69 inside eight overs, Yorkshire's best start of the season. Gale bludgeoned two fours in the opening over from Luke Procter and Bairstow made Tom Smith suffer by smashing him for two fours and a big six over backward square leg.
Sajid Mahmood helped to stem the flow of runs but it was Keedy who came on to make the initial breakthrough by having Bairstow lbw for 32 from 19 balls with five fours and a six as the batsman failed to make contact with an intended reverse sweep.
Adam Lyth maintained the momentum in a 65 stand in 7.3 overs with Gale who had smacked six fours and a six off 46 deliveries before he hit a full toss from Smith to mid-off. Lyth gave a return catch to Mahmood off a slower ball after making 45 from 33 balls and Gary Ballance's unbeaten 25 included successive sixes on either side of the wicket at Smith's expense.
Stephen Moore and Smith began brightly in poor light for Lancashire but at 26 in the third over Moore was run out by Joe Root's direct hit from the boundary edge. Smith was caught and bowled by Rashid in the next over to make it 27 for 2.
Then Rafiq entered the attack to bowl Steven Croft middle stump with his first ball and trap Mahmood lbw with his fifth. Karl Brown and Gareth Cross staged something of a recovery with a 51 stand in seven overs before Rashid's dramatic intervention in the 15th over.
He had Cross lbw for 30 aiming to leg, enticed Brown into giving Rafiq a catch above his head at long-off and gained another lbw verdict against Procter. Kyle Hogg and Steven Parry lost their stumps to Ajmal Shahzad and Sidebottom respectively but Clark's lusty blows kept Lancashire interested right to the end.