Brooks' five demolishes Leicestershire

Yorkshire 117 for 3 (Hodgson 52*) beat Leicestershire 113 for 9 (Brooks 5-21) by seven wickets
Scorecard

Jack Brooks sensationally ran through Leicestershire's top order inside the first eight overs to put Yorkshire on track for a seven-wicket victory and their first Friends Life t20 win of the season at Headingley.

He single-handedly left Leicestershire reeling on 38 for 5 and although they recovered to 113 for 9 it was an insufficient total to unduly worry Yorkshire who reached their target with seven wickets and 19 balls to spare.

Victory for the home side lifted them off the foot of the North Division table and boosted their chances of qualifying for the quarter-finals but it left Leicestershire with only two points from five matches at the half-way stage of their programme.

With skipper Andrew Gale out of action for three matches because of a broken hand, Yorkshire were led by Azeem Rafiq and his decision to field first was immediately justified by Brooks as he steamed his way to career-best figures of 5 for 21 off his four overs.

It was only the second five-wicket haul by a Yorkshire bowler in the competition's history and Brooks' figures left him as the leading wicket-taker of the competition with 11 dismissals for 102 runs at an average of 9.27.

Brooks first struck with his third ball which Greg Smith attempted to pull but only succeeded in giving a simple return catch. In his next over Brooks got rid of Josh Cobb, thanks to a wonder catch by Gary Ballance. The batsman drove high over Ballance at mid-off and the fielder dashed towards the boundary edge at long-off to hold on to an overhead catch with his left-hand as he dived forward at full stretch.

The slump continued as Brooks picked up his third wicket in eight balls, Shakib Al Hasan hitting straight to Joe Sayers at point. Matt Boyce then glanced onto his own stumps and Brooks secured his fifth wicket when Joe Burns lobbed up a catch to Liam Plunkett.

Although Leicestershire went on to record their lowest score against Yorkshire, Anthony Ireland managed to take them into three figures by driving three big sixes in his 23 off 15 balls. The visitors were more successful hitting the ball in the air than keeping it on the ground and they struck a total of six sixes compared to only five fours.

Phil Jaques stroked a couple of early boundaries for Yorkshire before driving Ireland straight to Rob Taylor in the covers but Sayers, replacing Gale in the side, entertained the 4,100 crowd with some sparkling strokes in a 41 stand in five overs with Dean Hodgson.

Sayers drove Ireland high over long-off for six the ball after striking him for four and he followed up with another fine boundary through extra cover.

There were further boundaries for the left-hander off Taylor and Matthew Hoggard, who later pulled up on the boundary edge and had to leave the field for treatment, but the end came for Sayers when he drove Jigar Naik hard to Cobb at cover for 28 from 23 balls with four fours and a six.

Adil Rashid was lbw in the same over to make it 54 for 3 but Hodgson and Ballance took complete control with an unbroken fourth wicket stand of 63, Hodgson calmly making his way to a career-best 52 from 46 balls with seven fours while Ballance was unbeaten on 21 from 20 deliveries with three boundaries.