Yorkshire kept their cool under intense pressure at Headingley yesterday to beat Worcestershire by 14 runs on their way through to the quarter-finals of the Cheltenham and Gloucester Trophy.

The draw was then kind and they will now meet Northamptonshire at Headingley on either July 15 or 16.

Chasing 242 to win, Worcestershire were kept on a tight rein but Kabir Ali and Zander de Bruyn took the score to 162-3 at which stage they required 80 from the last ten overs.

Yorkshire captain Craig White then showed why he is the country's leading wicket-taker in one-day cricket this season by snatching three crucial wickets during a spell of ten consecutive overs.

He received splendid support from Ian Harvey, who also claimed three wickets, and although Worcestershire were never entirely out of the equation they were left with too much to do and finished on 227-8.

White had also been instrumental in helping Yorkshire fight back from 88-4 after they had been put in to bat, sharing in a fifth wicket stand of 83 in 22 overs with Anthony McGrath, who top-scored with 74.

But the man-of-the-match gold award went to Worcestershire's South African all-rounder Zander de Bruyn for his 3-24 followed by a courageous 82 from 95 balls with three fours and two sixes.

Yorkshire suffered an early setback when Harvey fell without scoring, caught behind by Bradford-born James Pipe off Sri Lanka paceman Chaminda Vaas, but Matthew Wood and Phil Jaques overcame that blow by putting on 70 in 14 overs.

Suddenly, the game changed dramatically as de Bruyn picked up three key wickets in 12 balls at a cost of three runs, Wood falling lbw, Jaques driving tamely to mid-off and Michael Vaughan ending his time with Yorkshire on a dismal note by being bowled off an inside edge.

McGrath and White set about the repair work with McGrath dragging Gareth Batty high over square leg for six on his way to his 50 but he then lost White for 27.

Ismail Dawood was once again in prime batting form, picking up Matt Mason for six as he and McGrath thrashed 44 off four overs before McGrath was caught on the long-off boundary having faced 94 balls. He smacked five fours and two sixes.

Matthew Hoggard and Deon Kruis put immediate pressure on Worcestershire by bowling so tightly that they conceded only 36 runs in the first 15 overs, during which Kruis had Vikram Solanki caught by Dawood.

Harvey entered the attack to account for Stephen Moore and Graeme Hick in consecutive overs to leave Worcestershire floundering on 50-3, but Kabir Ali and de Bruyn staged a recovery with a tenacious stand of 117 in 23 overs.

White made the breakthrough by bowling Kabir Ali for 67 from 73 balls with five fours and a six and the game was virtually in the bag for Yorkshire by the time de Bruyn became another victim for the Yorkshire captain, who has now claimed 17 one-day wickets already this season.

White said: "I thought we batted very well and I would have settled for 241 before the innings began. We knew we were in the game at the half-way stage and Hoggard and Kruis really applied the pressure. Once Worcestershire wanted seven or eight an over the task became very difficult for them.

"I hadn't decided beforehand to bowl ten overs but I was not getting hit so I thought that I should stay on."

Updated: 11:26 Wednesday, May 18, 2005