Video - No excuses from Yorkshire captain Gary Ballance after Royal London Cup exit

The Yorkshire captain said that Surrey fully deserved their 24-run win after both teams made gruelling road trips the previous night.

Yorkshire made a 250-mile trek north from Taunton after beating Somerset in the County Championship, while Surrey travelled 220 miles north after losing their own Championship match against Essex at Guildford.

It put a strain on the players ahead of a big knockout game, with Yorkshire going through a range of emotions in just over 24 hours.

“We couldn’t really celebrate one of the best wins I’ve ever been part of (at Taunton),” said Ballance.

“It just shows how mad and crazy the schedule is. You win a four-day game and then you’ve got to travel five hours on a bus and play a knockout game the next day.

“It’s just mad for both teams, but that’s how it is; we’re certainly not making excuses about that.”

Ballance paid tribute to Kumar Sangakkara, whose 100th hundred in all cricket was the difference as Surrey knocked out Yorkshire for a second successive year.

“Sangakkara played a brilliant innings for them, a match-winning knock,” he said. “We needed someone to do that for us but, unfortunately, we didn’t have that guy.

“We know how good a player he is, and we tried everything at him. He got them to a good score, and we couldn’t quite get over the line.”