Ballance maintains Yorkshire’s slender hopes of semi-final spot

A MATCH against the Unicorns – county cricket’s answer to a Test match against Zimbabwe – seemed unlikely to provide Yorkshire with much of a challenge, but the home side were given an unexpected fright before running out winners by five wickets.

After Unicorns scored 150-6 in a game reduced by rain to 37 overs per side, Yorkshire were apparently coasting at 34-0 in the sixth over.

But the loss of four wickets for seven runs in 22 balls turned the contest on its head, and what should have been a Sunday afternoon stroll became something of a white-knuckle ride.

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Gary Ballance and Azeem Rafiq spared Yorkshire’s blushes with an unbroken sixth-wicket stand of 91, steering their side home with three overs to spare.

Victory maintained Yorkshire’s slender hopes of reaching the semi-finals.

Only the top team from each of the seven-strong groups, along with the best second-placed side, qualifies for the last four, and the odds remain heavily stacked against Yorkshire.

Not only are they four points behind leaders Warwickshire and three behind second-placed Sussex with time running out, but the best second-placed team is by no means likely to come from their pool.

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However, after they completed a second successive victory here, they can do more than attempt to win their remaining three games at home to Sussex, away to Kent and at home to Warwickshire and see where that takes them.

Chief interest yesterday focused not so much on the result, perhaps, but on the performance of Ryan Sidebottom, who had not played first-team cricket since June 24 owing to a calf injury.

The former England man had been building up his fitness in the second XI and he showed no ill-effects ahead of Wednesday’s key County Championship match against Second Division leaders Derbyshire at Headingley Carnegie.

Bowling from the Kirkstall Lane end, Sidebottom obtained movement beneath the cloudy skies on his way to figures of 7-1-28-2.

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The 34-year-old left-armer would be the first to admit the opposition was nothing to write home about, but a bowler can do no more than menace the batsmen in front of him.

Sidebottom struck the first blow when he bowled Bradley Wadlan for a duck with the sixth ball of the match.

The opening delivery of the second over, bowled by Iain Wardlaw, was actually a hat-trick ball after the pace man claimed two wickets with the final two deliveries of the Northamptonshire innings on Thursday night.

It proved something of an anti-climax, however, as Vishal Tripathi was able to watch it pass harmlessly outside off-stump without needing to offer a stroke.

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Wardlaw quickly settled into a good rhythm, though, and, along with Sidebottom, did not allow the batsmen to settle.

So accurate was Yorkshire’s bowling that the first boundary did not arrive until the penultimate ball of the seventh over, Tom New slashing Sidebottom through third man.

The first authentic boundary came in the next over when Tripathi square-drove Wardlaw for four, but Unicorns managed only 30 runs in the opening eight overs of powerplay.

The visitors lost their second wicket in the ninth over when New edged Sidebottom to wicketkeeper Dan Hodgson, who was making his Yorkshire first-team debut.

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Hodgson, 22, had previously played two first-class matches for Leeds-Bradford MCCU – one of them against Yorkshire at Headingley in April.

The young man acquitted himself well as Yorkshire opted to rest Gerard Brophy having previously decided to give first-choice gloveman Jonny Bairstow a break.

Unicorns lost their third wicket on 45 in the 14th over when Jayden Levitt got a leading edge back to Moin Ashraf, the bowler.

The visitors then fell to 49-5 as Adil Rashid chipped in with two quick wickets. The leg-spinner, fresh from career-best List A figures of 4-38 against Northamptonshire, bowled Tripathi and then had James Ord lbw.

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At that stage, the game appeared to be a ghastly mismatch, but resistance arrived in the form of captain Keith Parsons and Luis Reece, the latter having also played against Yorkshire this summer for Leeds-Bradford UCCE. The pair almost doubled the total as they added 46 in 12 overs, Reece playing one of the shots of the match when he launched off-spinner Azeem Rafiq for six over mid-wicket.

But Reece was finally undone by Rashid, who bowled him for 25 en route to figures of 3-24 from eight overs. Parsons, formerly of Somerset, found another willing ally in Robert Woolley, with whom he added an unbroken 56 in 11 overs.

Woolley’s contribution was exactly half, while Parsons finished on 48 from 60 balls with two fours and a six, the latter a lovely pick-up off Sidebottom over mid-wicket.

Set a revised target of 162, Yorkshire began with a flurry of boundaries as Andrew Gale and Phil Jaques continued their productive opening alliance.

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But Gale’s departure for 14, bowled by Woolley, triggered a dramatic collapse as the Unicorns fought their way back into the game.

Adam Lyth was caught behind off Glen Querl, Jaques was held at slip off Woolley, and Yorkshire fell to 41-4 in the ninth over when Querl had David Miller caught behind for a duck.

Rashid chipped in with 17 from 24 balls before he was ytapped in front by Paul Hindmarch, the prelude to the partnership by Ballance and Rafiq that ended Unicorns’ challenge.

Ballance, all meaty clips and booming drives, finished unbeaten on 69 from 83 balls with six fours and a six, while Rafiq’s wristy 34 from 48 balls with two fours was a career-best performance in List A cricket.