Leicestershire end Yorkshire hopes
Michael Vaughan falls to AJ Harris for 17 as Yorkshire slump from a promising position against hosts Leicestershire
Leicestershire snatched a dramatic 11-run victory over Yorkshire at Grace Road to put themselves one win away from a place in the quarter-finals of the Twenty20 Cup.
Chasing a target of 165, Yorkshire looked virtually home and dry after an opening stand of 104 in 12 overs between Andrew Gale and Jacques Rudolph.
But then, in gathering gloom, they lost their way and ended on 153 for six as AJ Harris and Wayne White each claimed two wickets in the last four overs to set up a winner-takes-all clash against Durham on Sunday. The defeat put paid to Yorkshire's hopes of going through.
But they must be wondering how they missed out after some brilliant batting from Gale and Rudolph had left them firmly in the driving seat.
Gale, dropped by Claude Henderson off Harris in the first over before he had scored, went on to make 43 while Rudolph was in blistering form, hitting 61 off only 39 balls with one six and 10 other boundaries.
Gale hit three successive fours off Iain O'Brien's first over and Rudolph reached his fifty off just 29 deliveries before finally falling to a catch at long-off to give O'Brien his first wicket.
But from that point on Yorkshire's run-rate slowed as the Foxes tightened their line and lengths, with both Michael Vaughan and Gerard Brophy struggling for momentum in the middle of the innings.
Yorkshire needed 25 off the last two overs but excellent bowling from Harris and White gave Leicestershire a win that at one stage looked highly unlikely.
Batting first, Leicestershire posted 164 for six, Jacques Du Toit top-scoring with an excellent 39 alongside contributions coming from James Allenby and Paul Nixon.
Allenby hit 32 off 26 balls and Nixon divided impetus towards the end of the innings with 32 off 27 balls.
Leicestershire scored 42 off the last five overs and, although their total looked under par, they fought back well to snatch a surprise win.
