Elliott carries Yorkshire to six-wicket triumph

A perfectly-paced innings of 128 by man-of-the-match Matthew Elliott has won Yorkshire the Cheltenham & Gloucester Trophy before a packed house at Lord's in today's showpiece final. Set 257 to win by last year's winners, Yorkshire made an indifferent start before Elliott imposed himself on the contest. In the end Yorkshire won by six wickets, their first victory in this competition since 1965, to put the lid on a miserable season for the Cidermen.

The celebrations when Yorkshire clinched victory were a far cry from their uncertain start. Craig White, after taking seven from Andrew Caddick's first over, was undone by Richard Johnson, who found his outside edge for Rob Turner to take a sprawling catch behind the stumps. Chris Silverwood replaced him, only to see his third ball from Johnson send his off-stump cartwheeling. Johnson had taken two for five in two overs and Yorkshire were wondering.

Elliott settled his team's nerves with cover-driven boundaries at either end, and the 50 came up off 66 balls. He lost Matthew Wood, again bowled by Johnson but this time off the inside edge, for 19. The wicket justified Jamie Cox's decision to keep Johnson on into his seventh over. A double change introduced Keith Parsons and Steffan Jones, and Elliott took another boundary off the former with an impeccable straight drive.

Michael Vaughan had reached 31 without scoring a boundary when he failed to survive the second of two successive lbw appeals in Jones' second spell. Without approaching his sublime Test form of earlier this summer, Vaughan had featured in a 94-run partnership of critical importance to his side. McGrath, after surviving another desperately close lbw call, tucked into the mainly economical Ian Blackwell with a delicious cover boundary. The first ball of Caddick's return was smacked through mid-wicket by Elliott, and Somerset's senior bowler was banished to long leg after conceding 53 runs in nine overs.

Elliott swept Dutch for two to reach his hundred, and McGrath revelled in his partner's success, smiting the same bowler over extra cover and the returning Johnson over mid-wicket. But appropriately it was Elliott who clinched victory, hitting Jones through mid-wicket off the penultimate ball of the 48th over. Elliott's 128 came at less than a run a ball, and included 16 boundaries.

Earlier a half-century from Peter Bowler was the primary contribution to Somerset's 256 for eight, while Keith Parsons contributed to the latter stages of the innings. Marcus Trescothick quickly brought the crowd to life in his major innings since breaking a thumb in the quarter-final against Worcestershire at Taunton. After being caught off a no ball in the sixth over (Hoggard's third), he took 14 off the next three deliveries, with an off-driven six into the pavilion and two crunching fours to raise the voices and hopes of the Somerset faithful. But they were reduced to near silence in Hoggard's next over by an electric piece of fielding. As Trescothick again drove fiercely, Michael Vaughan launched himself to his right in the covers to pull off a spectacular one-handed catch.

Trescothick, who had looked well set, made 27 and walked off at 41 for one, with the rate up at around six an over. Hoggard, who went for 34 off his first four overs, looked a relieved man and made way for Ryan Sidebottom in the tenth. At the nursery end Silverwood, who had a pain-killing injection for an ankle injury before the match, bowled his first eight overs off the reel for 30. Joined by Jamie Cox, Bowler continued to punish anything loose, and as the fielding restrictions ended Somerset had reached 82 for one. Cox, who had looked in good touch, was the second wicket to fall when he was given out lbw to an in-swinging delivery from McGrath.

Having hit five fours from the 68 balls he faced, Bowler's valuable innings came to an end when he fashioned a somewhat flat-footed drive against the first ball of Hoggard's second spell and edged behind to Richard Blakey. He was out for 67 and with him went much of Somerset's momentum. Hoggard struck again to dismiss the dangerous Michael Burns for 21, and Sidebottom bowled new international selection Ian Blackwell for 12 as the innings stalled.

Turner joined the ever-reliable Parsons and helped add 39 for the sixth wicket. At one time, it appeared that Somerset had been on course for a total close to 300, but 250 became a more realistic target when Turner chipped Sidebottom's slower ball to Craig White at short mid-wicket. Johnson was bowled playing a horrible smear at Hoggard, while Parsons survived until the final over, falling to a well-judged catch by Sidebottom at long-on to give Hoggard a five-wicket return that flattered him.

It was left to Keith Dutch to garner all available runs in the last over, which he did with customary panache. The power with which he crashed Hoggard through the covers for four off the back foot was worthy of note. That was one of only eight boundaries in the last 20 overs as the Yorkshire attack came back well. In the end the suspicion that Somerset's total was some 15 to 20 runs below par on a good batting pitch proved to be well-founded.