Yorks triumph despite Brown ton

Yorkshire survived a superb 129 from Lancashire's Karl Brown to start their Royal London One-Day Cup Group A campaign with an entertaining 47-run win at Old Trafford.

Half-centuries for Kane Williamson and Alex Lees were the main features of Yorkshire's imposing 324 for 7 on a true pitch, their best ever total against Lancashire in all List A cricket, after Andrew Gale had elected to bat.

Lancashire then slipped to 57 for 3 in the 15th over of their reply before Brown smashed a career best 129 off 99 balls, including nine fours and four sixes. When he departed to leave the score at 250 for 6 in the 43rd over, the home innings subsided to 277 all out in the 47th. Tim Bresnan and Adil Rashid took two wickets each and there were three run outs.

Williamson and Lees, who hit 70 off 82 balls and 66 off 73 respectively, shared 82 in 15.1 overs for the second wicket. There was an argument to suggest that Yorkshire could have posted more having reached 151 for 2 at halfway, including an opening stand of 69 in 9.5 between Lees and Adam Lyth (46).

Williamson and Andrew Gale added 72 for the third as the visitors moved to 223 for 3 with 11 overs left but it took to a powerful cameo of 32 off 16 balls from Bresnan at the death to get them above 320.

Still, Yorkshire would have been far the happier of the two camps at the halfway stage even though Lancashire, largely off colour in the field, took four wickets in the last 10 overs, including two for Kabir Ali. All of Yorkshire's seven wickets to fall were caught and five of them to either mid-off, mid-on or long-on.

Usman Khawaja and Ashwell Prince fell in successive overs from the Pavilion End to Bresnan and Lyth's part-time offspin as Lancashire slipped to 51 for 2 as their chase failed to get off the ground. Khawaja was well caught by Lyth running back from midwicket off a top edged pull before Lyth himself, only introduced for one over, got Prince caught at mid-on having conceded eight off the previous four balls.

A forgettable 20 off 54 balls from Alex Davies at the top of the order was ended in the 15th over when he mistimed Steve Patterson to mid-on with 57 on the board.

Fourth-wicket pair Brown and Paul Horton positively steadied the ship with a stand of 103 inside 17 overs before the latter was run out backing up by a Rich Pyrah deflection with 160 on the board in the 31st.

Steven Croft was also run out, this time going for two to long-leg, before Brown brought up his an 82-ball century with seven fours and two sixes. However, he fell shortly afterwards when he was bowled by a Jack Brooks slower ball with 75 still needed.

And that was the beginning of the end as it was the first of three wickets to fall in three-and-a-half overs as Rashid got Wayne White and Jordan Clark to leave Lancashire at 271 for 8 in the 46th. They did not recover as - in the next over - Ali was caught by Jonny Bairstow off Bresnan and Kyle Jarvis lost his wicket when run out.