Northants keep winning record against Yorkshire

Debutant Michael Strong broke the back of Yorkshire's innings with three wickets in twenty deliveries as Northamptonshire, who have never lost to the Tykes in this competition, beat their visitors by 69 runs in their NatWest Trophy fourth-round match at Wantage Road. The 26 year-old quick bowler sent back Gary Fellows, Richard Blakey and Darren Lehmann as Yorkshire slumped to 183 all out.

Northamptonshire's own 252 runs total had been built around a 118 runs third-wicket partnership between Matthew Hayden (63) and David Sales (65) which had retrieved the ground lost by the early dismissal of Adrian Rollins and Mal Loye to Gavin Hamilton. The Australian hit a six and seven fours in his stay of 69 deliveries, and Sales' more circumspect approach - taking 94 balls - showed why he had been made Northamptonshire's player-of-the-month for a sequence of impressive limited-overs performances.

Lehmann's slow left-arm spin dismissed Sales and Graeme Swann in the course of four balls when Northamptonshire at 207-3 seemed to be set for a huge score. That was but a prelude to Darren Gough (4-36) finishing off the lower-order but the 252 runs total offered Yorkshire a stiff target.

It looked even more formidable when they sagged to 28-3 against Strong's initial assault in his first match in the competition. Shortly afterwards Devon Malcolm took the prized wicket of Michael Vaughan to a catch in the covers. At 36-4 Anthony McGrath (64) and David Byas (33) showed some resilience in taking the score to 73 when Tony Penberthy effectively settled the matter by dismissing Byas. McGrath's departure after 69 deliveries merely underlined the inevitable. Last man Gough was run out with Yorkshire still out of sight of their target.