Career-best feels great for Ballance

GARY Ballance scored an unbeaten 152 to guide Yorkshire three points clear at the top of the One-Day Cup North Group as they thrashed Northamptonshire, and the captain believes it may have been his finest white-ball knock.

Yorkshire had looked in trouble with the score at 73-4 but Ballance eventually led them to 300-6 at Wantage Road.

Northants got off to the worst possible start in reply as they slumped to 11-4 and were eventually bowled out for 136 in just 28.1 overs – a 164-run defeat.

The result leaves the Midlands side heading for the exit, with Yorkshire all but set for a place in the knockout stages.

And Ballance was understandably delighted with both his knock and his form in general – having already plundered 934 runs at an average of 103.78 in all formats this season.

He said: “In terms of my oneday cricket for Yorkshire, that innings is right up there, probably at the top. Especially coming in with the team in a little bit of trouble.

“It’s always nice to get runs when the team need it and to help us get a good score that we could defend.

“Both Matthew Waite and Adil Rashid were very good. Waitey is one of the young players in the squad who keeps improving every game. He has done it with the ball and now he has done it with the bat.

“We had a partnership of about a hundred to set up the last ten overs.”

Ballance has been in good form with the bat since taking on the responsibility of Yorkshire captaincy – but he is not sure if the two are connected.

He added: “I don’t know if my form has anything to do with the captaincy, but I started the season feeling good and trying to make the most of the good form.

“Maybe the extra responsibility of needing a score when I came into bat may have helped.

“When it is going quite well I just want the form to last as long as possible. We are playing some very good cricket, we just want to keep doing it.

“What we have not done so well in the past is being consistent. Hopefully we can do that for the next two games and top the group, then it would be fantastic.”

Things did not look good for the Vikings at first with both Adam Lyth and Joe Root going cheaply as they stumbled to 73-4 – but Ballance came in to lead Yorkshire to a competitive score of 300 with help from Waite (43) and Rashid (41).

The skipper smashed three maximums and 19 fours in his 118-ball knock and his innings amounted to over half of Yorkshire’s runs.

In reply, Northants slumped to 11-4 after only 16 balls with David Willey and Ben Coad both picking up two wickets to do the early damage.

Azeem Rafiq took 3-27 as the hosts were all out for 136 with 22 overs still remaining – a result which means they cannot reach the knockout stages.