Yorkshire batsmen in good form again

Yorkshire 240 for 3 (30 overs) beat Northamptonshire 118 (15.2/16 overs) by 35 runs D/L method
Scorecard

After a rousing display with the bat, Yorkshire then had the better of the difficult conditions as they beat Northamptonshire by 35 runs under the Duckworth-Lewis method. Chasing an initially revised target of 245 in 30 overs, Northants were four for one after two overs when rain caused a further stoppage.

On the resumption their new requirement was another 150 from 14 overs and they never looked like reaching the target. Before the break, Mal Loye had been yorked by West Indian Tino Best and on the resumption two wickets fell off the first two balls from Steve Patterson.

Stephen Peters was trapped lbw and Andrew Hall run out when he slipped while responding to David Sales' call for a single. Rob White made good progress but lost Sales with the score on 41 when Ben Sanderson managed to hold onto a stinging return drive, and in fading light Sanderson struck again to send back Nicky Boje.

A big six off David Wainwright took White to his half-century before the left-arm spinner bowled James Middlebrook. Northants were effectively out of the race before White was caught on the boundary for a gallant 69 from 47 balls with nine fours and a six, the first of three wickets to fall in the penultimate over to Richard Pyrah.

Put into bat on a bitterly cold afternoon, Yorkshire were given a cracking start by Andrew Gale and Jacques Rudolph, the South African showing the same form which had brought him unbeaten scores of 101 and 228 in his two previous innings.

The openers had taken 39 off the first five overs when a downpour drove the players into the pavilion, and when play resumed the game had been reduced to 30 overs per side. Gale had made 35 from 25 balls with seven fours when he hit a ball from David Lucas straight up in the air and was caught by Hall.

Coming in at 61 for 1 in only the eighth over, Adam Lyth was just as fluent as Rudolph in a 54 stand in eight overs, but was then slow in responding to Rudolph's call for a second run and could not regain his ground in time.

Anthony McGrath survived a chance to White on the cover boundary but suddenly moved into top gear with two sixes. The former captain dashed to his 50 from 39 balls with three fours and two sixes and his 95 stand in 11 overs with Rudolph ended when his partner drove Hall to David Willey at long on for 83 from 78 deliveries.

Yorkshire were so much in charge that 49 runs flowed from the three overs of batting powerplay and at the close of the innings at 240 for 3, McGrath was unbeaten on 77 from 50 deliveries.