YORKSHIRE IN ONE-DAY SUCCESS
Gale leads victorious Tykes into quarter final
ANDREW GALE led Yorkshire into the quarter-finals of the Royal London One-Day Cup and then insisted his team can win the trophy.
Yorkshire booked their place in the last eight with a 10-wicket victory against Derbyshire at Scarborough.
It was their fifth win in seven group games and kept them top of Group A with one match left, against Hampshire at Southampton next Thursday.
Yorkshire would guarantee a home quarter-final by winning that game, and captain Gale believes they can now win the competition.
“I think we can go all the way,” said Gale, whose side blew away Derbyshire for 151 in 41 overs before cruising home with 20.3 overs to spare, Alex Lees striking 69 and Adam Lyth 67.
“We’ve played some really good cricket up to now and I definitely think we can win some silverware.
“I knew going into this comp that it works better for the makeup of our side than Twenty20,” he said.
“The two lads up top are playing out of their skins and getting us off to really good starts, and we’re getting contributions throughout the side.”
Having missed out on qualification for the quarter-finals of the T20 Blast, Yorkshire were in no mood to make the same mistake in the 50-over tournament.
A group containing the Midlands quartet of Derbyshire, Worcestershire, Leicestershire and Northamptonshire was tantamount to receiving a bye to the last eight, but those sides still had to be beaten and Yorkshire have played well in the format overall.
It remains to be seen how they fare against the very best teams in the knockout stages, with Essex having beaten them comfortably at Scarborough on Monday and Nottinghamshire having defeated them in a decisive T20 game at Headingley last month, and Yorkshire have sometimes taken one step forward and two steps back in one-day cricket this summer.
But they have been full value for their progress in the 50-over fare and are only two knockout wins from a Lord’s final, something they have not experienced since they lifted the old Chelten- ham and Gloucester Trophy in 2002, their last silverware of any description.
Victory over Derbyshire seemed guaranteed from the moment that Tim Bresnan took two early wickets after Yorkshire won the toss on a sunny morning that gave way to a cloudy afternoon.
Before a crowd that eventually climbed to 4,000, Bresnan had Wes Durston caught at third man with his first delivery – the opening ball of the second over – and then Marcus North caught behind.
It left Derbyshire 4-2 in the fourth over and although they rallied to 52-2 in the 15th, Rich Pyrah knocked the stuffing out of them with three quick wickets.
Wayne Madsen was wellcaught by a tumbling Andrew Hodd off an inside edge before Pyrah struck twice in two balls with the total on 73, Billy Godleman caught at point and Scott Elstone caught at second slip – Lyth providing the safe pair of hands on both occasions.
It was Adil Rashid’s turn then to get in on the act, the leg-spinner having Gareth Cross caught by Bresnan at mid-off and David Wainwright held on the midwicket boundary by Jack Leaning.
Steve Patterson rounded off the innings by also having Alex Hughes caught on the mid-wicket boundary by Leaning before yorking Mark Footitt.
Hughes’s 43 was the top score, made from 76 balls with two fours and a six, with only five batsmen reaching double figures.
Pyrah returned the best figures of 3-25 as Derbyshire were dismissed with nine of their allotted overs left.
So swiftly did Yorkshire sweep the Derbyshire batting aside, there was time for 12 overs of their reply before the scheduled mid-innings break.
Yorkshire were 64-0 at that stage, with Derbyshire’s problems having been compounded by the removal of pace bowler Footitt from the attack for intimidatory bowling.
Footitt’s fifth over contained three bouncers and a beamer, North completing his over from the Trafalgar Square end.
It was wayward stuff from Footitt, the 28-year-old left-armer, and belied his status as the second highest wicket-taker in Division Two of the County Championship this season with 52 at 20.86.
After the interval, with the threat of rain never far away (no sooner had the match finished, indeed, than there was a torrential shower), Yorkshire needed only a further 17.3 overs to wrap things up.
Lees beat Lyth in the race to fifty, reached from 66 balls with seven fours, on a day when Lees continued his remarkable record against Derbyshire.
In four innings against them in all competitions, the 21-year-old has scored 472 runs without being dismissed.
Lyth went to his fifty from 63 balls with five fours and a six, the pair recording their fifth century stand in all cricket this year in a game which Yorkshire’s dominance rendered a non-event.