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Roses rivals share the spoils

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Yorkshire Vikings and Lancashire Lightning dramatically tied their Friends Life t20 clash in front of a capacity crowd of 15,000 at Headingley.

Steven Croft hit the last ball for two when three were required for a Red Rose victory.

The tie brought Yorkshire their first point in the competition after three matches and ended a Lancashire run of two consecutive defeats.

Put into bat on a glorious evening, Yorkshire totalled 152 for six in a game that was keenly contested throughout.

Lancashire seemed favourites following an opening stand of 46 in five overs between Stephen Moore and Tom Smith, but man-of-the-match Richard Pyrah hit back with three crucial wickets at a cost of 15 runs and the last over arrived with 10 still required and Ryan Sidebottom bowling to Croft and Kabir Ali.

Kabir scrambled a single off the first ball and Croft edged the second just wide of wicketkeeper Andrew Hodd's right hand for a boundary before failing to score off the next.

A leg-bye followed and Kabir ran another single to leave Croft on strike for the final delivery amid mounting tension. The batsman played it through point towards the boundary and the pair ran two but a third was never on.

Both sides made bright starts to their innings, skipper Andrew Gale and Phil Jaques putting on 32 in five overs for Yorkshire before the captain chased a wide ball from Smith and was caught behind by Gareth Cross.

The White Rose batsmen then struggled to make any real impact with the exception of Jaques, who batted through for 66 from 57 balls. His only maximum, to go with six fours, came when he cleared the ropes off Kabir in the 20th over.

The brake was mainly put on Yorkshire by spinners Stephen Parry and debutant Arron Lilley, who conceded only 21 and 22 respectively while each picking up a wicket.

It was in the fourth over of the reply that Smith appeared to put Lancashire in a commanding position by thrashing 24 off Jack Brooks, who had collected six wickets at a cost of 34 runs in Yorkshire's two previous games.

Smith began with a stinging straight-driven boundary and four off the back foot through mid-on. He then ran two after aiming just wide of Gary Ballance at mid-on and ended the over with two more fours either side of a six.

Liam Plunkett broke the opening stand when Moore gave an easy catch to Ballance at mid-on and Pyrah began his successful stint with the wicket of Smith, brilliantly caught low at mid-off by Plunkett for 35 from 20 balls.

Pyrah bowled Katich and Karl Brown when both were just beginning to look dangerous, leaving Lancashire on 97 for four.

That became 118 for five in the 17th over as Cross played a dipping full-toss from Plunkett into his stumps, the umpires ruling that the ball was not above waist-high.

Croft and Kabir were made to scrap for every run but seemed to have taken control again when 24 were required from two overs and the expensive Brooks conceded 14, setting up the frenzied finish.


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