STUNNED Yorkshire Phoenix never got over the shock of finding themselves on two runs for three wickets after only eight balls in their Twenty20 Cup match against Lancashire Lightning at Old Trafford yesterday.

They managed to recover to 102-8 but then suffered even greater embarrassment as openers Mal Loye and Stuart Law contemptuously smashed 62 together off only 37 balls to rush Lancashire towards a seven-wicket victory in just 13.1 overs.

Yorkshire's humiliating performance virtually destroyed their hopes of reaching the Twenty20 semi-finals but their demise did not worry the majority in a partisan crowd of 14,862 - easily the biggest so far in the competition.

The one change Yorkshire made from the side which lost to Leicestershire Foxes on Monday was the return of acting captain Matthew Wood following a hand injury at the expense of Pieter Swanepoel but the only thing that went right for Wood was winning the toss.

Even then, he was made to regret his decision to bat first as both Stephen Fleming and Michael Lumb departed in the first over from Glen Chapple and Wood fell to Peter Martin's second ball.

Chapple began with a wide to Fleming and off the next ball the New Zealand captain got a leading edge which flew gently to Alec Swann, so continuing Fleming's nightmare start to his Yorkshire career.

In three Twenty20 innings in six days, Fleming has made two ducks and four and has faced only four legitimate deliveries.

Lumb completed his second consecutive duck with the ball flying via an inside edge and pad to Chris Schofield at point and Wood was plumb lbw to Martin.

Yuvraj Singh started a revival with three boundaries and Craig White off-drove John Wood sweetly for six but it became 28-4 when Yuvraj edged Martin and the ball flew off wicketkeeper Warren Hegg's glove to Carl Hooper at slip.

Gavin Hamilton was unable to get his bat out of the way of Martin's next ball which lifted on him and the left-hander was sent back for his second consecutive first ball duck but Richard Blakey avoided the hat-trick with a single.

A feeble shot from White ended his resistance on 17 and although Blakey top-scored with 32 off 36 balls and Andy Gray and Chris Silverwood each made 13 it was too late to get Yorkshire out of their mess.

Lancashire wasted no time in rattling up their reply, Loye smacking three consecutive fours off Ryan Sidebottom before lifting Silverwood for a legside six and Law then rapped five powerful boundaries in one over from Sidebottom.

Having rushed to 29 from 18 balls with six fours, Law drove Tim Bresnan's first ball to Wood at mid-off and the same combination accounted for Loye after he had received 34 balls for his 45 with four fours and three sixes.

Chapple was caught on the square leg boundary in the next over from Gray but by now it was all over bar the shouting from the ecstatic Lancashire fans.

Yorkshire will today try to repair some of the damage to morale by beating Durham at Headingley (5.30pm).

Updated: 12:17 Friday, June 20, 2003