Lyth, Jaques power Yorkshire to top spot

Yorkshire concluded their most successful Friends Life t20 campaign by beating Derbyshire by 21 runs to top the North Group and earn a home tie against Worcestershire in the quarter-finals. It was Yorkshire's seventh win of the campaign, the sequence being interrupted by two no-result fixtures, and their only defeat was inflicted by Durham who beat them by two runs in the opening match.

Put in to bat by Derbyshire, Yorkshire were given the ideal start with an opening stand of 131 by Adam Lyth and Phil Jaques, a county record for the first wicket, and they never looked back, although the visitors worked hard to restrict them to 180 for 5, their joint highest score of the season.

Lyth was the faster scorer of the two openers but both made good progress. The pair put on 57 in the initial six-over powerplay and with Lyth reeling off a series of quality drives through extra cover he reached his 50 off 34 balls. Tom Knight was pulled for six by Lyth and the stand raced into three figures in 11.5 overs before Jaques reached his half-century from 34.

The stand went past Yorkshire's previous best for the first wicket of 116, set earlier this season by Andrew Gale and Jaques, and it was just six short of Yorkshire's highest for any wicket - 137 by Gale and Herschelle Gibbs against Durham at Leeds in 2010 - when Lyth was caught on the midwicket boundary off Chesney Hughes.

Jaques followed in the next over when Knight had him caught at deep midwicket off Alex Hughes to leave Yorkshire on 150 for 2 in the 17th over. Although David Miller and Joe Root both weighed in with sixes, Naved-ul-Hasan prevented a late flow of runs by picking up a couple of wickets.

Derbyshire did little early on in their innings to suggest that they could mount a realistic challenge, Usman Khawaja being caught behind by Gerard Brophy from Richard Pyrah's second ball in the third over and Durston having his leg stump flattened by Mitchell Starc.

Chesney Hughes and Wayne Madsen brought about something of a revival with a 55-run stand in seven overs during which Madsen drove Azeem Rafiq over long-on for four and hit his next ball for four. Madsen was then caught and bowled by Rafiq for 21 and it became 77 for 4 as Hughes was run out when he could not beat Pyrah's return to the wicketkeeper.

Jon Clare and Alex Hughes fell in quick succession and it looked all over at 99 for 6 but Naved had other ideas with 68 wanted from the last five overs. He blasted Pyrah for three consecutive sixes off the first three balls of the 16th over, claiming 24 in total off the over.

He and Garry Park put on 55 in four overs for the seventh wicket before Park was caught in the deep off Moin Ashraf who bowled Tim Groenewald in the same over. Chris Durham fell to Starc and Naved was denied sufficient of the strike to continue his onslaught, ending unbeaten on 40 from 22 balls with four sixes.