Hodd hauls Yorkshire home

Andy Hodd led Yorkshire to victory over Leicestershire as the White Rose stepped up their bid for a place in the Royal London Cup quarter-finals in a rain-affected game at Grace Road.

Chasing a Duckworth-Lewis revised target of 191 off 32 overs, Yorkshire reached it with three balls to spare to make it four wins in five games and keep their place at the top of the Group A table.

Hodd struck an unbeaten 69 sharing a game-changing seventh wicket stand of 62 with England allrounder Tim Bresnan.

Leicestershire posted 236 for 8 off their 50 overs after being put into bat with Matt Boyce hitting 74 not out. Yorkshire then slumped to 27 for 2 off 11 overs in their reply before rain swept in and forced the players off the field for more than an hour.

If the game had been abandoned at that stage the visitors would have won comfortably with Yorkshire well behind the D/L par score. But, with 18 overs lost, the game resumed with a revised target of another 164 runs off the remaining 21 overs.

Wickets continued to fall at regular intervals as Yorkshire slipped to 91 for 6 with 11 overs remaining and Leicestershire looked favourites to land their third win of the competition. Instead the seventh wicket stand of 62 off 41 balls between wicketkeeper Hodd and Bresnan turned the game on its head.

Bresnan struck a belligerent 24 off 19 balls and Hodd played magnificently hitting 10 fours and a six in his 43-ball innings. He should have been out on 41 with the score at 149 but Ben Raine dropped him off Anthony Ireland at long-on.

The Foxes still looked to have a chance of victory when Bresnan holed out off Charlie Shreck but Hodd and Richard Pyrah took Yorkshire home scoring 32 off 15 balls. Pyrah sealed the win with a superb six off Shiv Thakor.

Leicestershire found it hard going in their innings on a pitch giving help to the bowlers and it needed two late stands to give them a defendable total. Boyce and Tom Wells put on 54 for the seventh wicket and then Raine joined Boyce in a stand of 62 for the eighth wicket. Raine hit 43 off 35 balls with five fours and two sixes.

Boyce finished unbeaten on 74 off 94 balls as the Foxes scored 118 off the last 20 overs after being 118 for 6 after 30 overs. Jack Brooks took 2 for 26 while Pyrah and Adil Rashid also claimed two wickets apiece.