TWENTY20 CUP NORTH DIVISION, Grace Road:
Leicestershire 164-6 beat Yorkshire 153-6 by 11 runs (Leics 2pts)

Leicestershire kept their heads as they beat Yorkshire by 11 runs at Grace Road to leave themselves one win away from a place in the Twenty20 Cup last eight.

Yorkshire looked favourites at 104-0 off 12 overs in reply to twice Twenty20 winners Leicestershire's 164-6.

But Jacques Rudolph (61) and Andrew Gale (43) went in successive overs.

And Yorkshire dramatically folded to finish on 153-6 to leave themselves out of the running and Leicestershire in second place in the North Division.

In gathering gloom, the visitors lost their way as Andrew 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 finally put paid to Yorkshire's hopes of going through. But they must be wondering how on earth they missed out.

Gale, dropped by Claude Henderson off Harris before he had scored in the first over, went on to make 43 off 33 balls, including three successive fours off Iain O'Brien's first over.

And Rudolph was in blistering form hitting 61 off just 39 balls with one six and 10 other boundaries before falling to a catch at long-off to give O'Brien his first wicket.

From that point on, the Tykes slowed as the Foxes tightened their line and length, to leave 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 the Foxes a win that at one stage had looked highly unlikely.

Leicestershire, who won the trophy in 2004 and 2006, now host Durham, rained off against Lancashire at the Riverside, in Sunday's winner-takes-all showdown at Grace Road.

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