Yorkshire's five wicket Roses triumph at Liverpool yesterday revived their flagging hopes of making it through to the quarter-finals and at the same time ended Lancashire's involvement in the competition.
Yorkshire had to win their last North group match, against Durham, at Headingley today to stand a chance of reaching the last eight on a superior run rate.
But they cannot expect any favours from their former coach Martyn Moxon, who left Headingley for Riverside in the New Year.
It is bound to be a tough encounter because Durham need to win in order to be certain of going through themselves.
Apart from one or two scares near the end, Yorkshire were generally in command after doing well to restrict Lancashire to 170 for nine and they made it with 20 balls to spare.
Australian Darren Lehmann picked up his second gold award in a week for a versatile all-round performance which saw him bowl six overs for only 13 runs and the crucial wicket of Lancashire captain John Crawley before entertaining the 4,000 crowd to a cameo knock of 35.
His batting had the added value of taming the wizardry of Sri Lankan Muthiah Muralitharan who was never allowed to pose a serious threat and in one brutal over Lehmann thumped the spinner over mid wicket for four and off-drove him for a big six.
The grittiest innings, however, came from skipper David Byas who was determined to make a decent personal contribution after castigating his team for their feeble performance against Leicestershire last week when they threw the match away.
Byas showed signs of a welcome return to form by striking 55 off 107 balls with eight boundaries before being bowled leg stump by Joe Scuderi.
One run later Lehmann slashed at a long hop from Andy Flintoff and was caught at point and at 136 for four, Yorkshire wobbled slightly, Craig White chopping John Wood into his stumps to make it 157 for five.
Michael Lumb and Gary Fellows refused to be panicked and they waited patiently for the few remaining runs to come, Lancashire being handicapped by the removal from their attack of Flintoff who pulled up with a strain in the over he dismissed Lehmann and had to leave the field.
Winning the toss, Lancashire soon lost Mark Chilton to Chris Silverwood but Mike Atherton and Crawley batted solidly in a 110 stand for the second wicket.
Without exception, Yorkshire's attack stuck rigidly to their task and bowled so accurately that neither batsman was able to cut loose.
Having reached 60 off 97 balls, Atherton was left kicking himself when he hit a full toss from Fellows straight into the hands of Lehmann at long leg.
In the next over, Lehmann bowled Crawley for 52 when he attempted to cut and Lancashire were put into such a tight stranglehold that only 49 runs came off the last 15 overs.
Benson and Hedges Cup
North Section
Lancashire v Yorkshire
(at Liverpool)
Lancashire won toss
Lancashire
Atherton c Lehmann b Fellows 60
Chilton c Blakey b Silverwood 2
Crawley b Lehmann 52
Flintoff c Silverwood b Sidebottom 15
Scuderi c Blakey b Fellows 6
Lloyd run out 17
Hegg c Vaughan b Gough 3
Austin c Byas b Silverwood 0
Wood c & b Silverwood 2
Martin not out 3
Muralitharan not out 1
Extras (b1 lb5 w3 pens 0) 9
Total (9 wkts, 50 overs, innings complete) 170
Fall: 1-8 2-118 3-121 4-136 5-147 6-157 7-161 8-163 9-169
Bowling: Gough 9-0-33-1, Silverwood 8-1-30-3, White 10-0-32-0, Sidebottom 9-1-23-1, Vaughan 3-0-18-0, Fellows 5-0-15-2, Lehmann 6-1-13-1.
Yorkshire Innings
Byas b Scuderi 55
Vaughan b Martin 24
McGrath c Muralitharan b Scuderi 13
Lehmann c Chilton b Flintoff 35
White b Wood 4
Lumb not out 20
Fellows not out 3
Extras (b2 lb5 w8 nb2 pens 0) 17
Total (5 wkts, 46.4 overs) 171
Fall: 1-40 2-84 3-135 4-137 5-157
Did not bat: Blakey, Gough, Sidebottom, Silverwood.
Bowling: Martin 10-0-45-1, Wood 8.4-1-32-1, Muralitharan 10-3-33-0, Austin 10-1-25-0, Flintoff 2.5-0-10-1, Scuderi 5-1-17-2, Chilton 0.1-0-2-0.
Yorkshire beat Lancashire by 5 wkts.
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