Botha ruins Yorkshire's day
Ant Botha picked up three wickets with his spin as Yorkshire's middle-order hit out in vain at Headingley Carnegie
The new £21million Carnegie pavilion and media centre was in use for the first time at Headingley today but Yorkshire Carnegie were unable to celebrate the occasion, going down by 34 runs to Warwickshire Bears in the Friends Provident t20.
Chasing 156 for victory, Yorkshire never looked like getting there once opener Adam Lyth had gone and they limped to a final total of 121 for nine, Ant Botha doing most of the damage with 3-16.
It was a different story while Lyth was at the crease, however, because the young left-hander hit a flurry of boundaries off the opening overs from Boyd Rankin and Neil Carter as Yorkshire raced to 40 inside five overs.
But after cracking 34 from 16 balls with six fours, Lyth drove at Steffan Piolet’s first delivery and was caught behind by Richard Johnson.
Gerard Brophy was stumped off Darren Maddy after being dropped twice off Piolet, while Herschelle Gibbs was bowled by Imran Tahir.
Yorkshire were missing Anthony McGrath with an injured thumb and when Jacques Rudolph fell to Botha they were 81 for four and sinking quickly, the last two wickets going down to consecutive balls from Keith Barker.
After Warwickshire had won the toss, Neil Carter made sure they got off to a flying start with a typically aggressive 33 off 21 balls with three fours and a six but once he had been yorked for 21 by Tino Best - who sent down several deliveries at over 90mph - Yorkshire’s five-pronged bowling attack appeared to have gained the upper hand.
Maddy hit three fours and two sixes in his 19-ball 33 and Barker top-scored with a more sedate 31-ball 35 but only Botha of the remaining batsmen made any impression with an unbeaten 26.
Adil Rashid was once again Yorkshire’s most economical bowler with the wickets of Jim Troughton and Ian Westwood at a cost of just 20 runs from his four overs, but the top wicket-taker was Rich Pyrah who fully atoned for his last-ball 12 which resulted in a tie with Northamptonshire Steelbacks a couple of days earlier.
Pyrah had Rikki Clarke caught behind by Brophy and in his final over Piolet and Tahir succumbed to boundary catches to leave the all-rounder with figures of 3-20.
