Anthony McGrath's maiden century in county league cricket could not stop Yorkshire Phoenix from crashing to defeat by eight runs against Kent Spitfires at Canterbury.

It was a game Yorkshire should have won after they had wanted only 29 from the last five overs with seven wickets in hand but they got stuck against accurate bowling from Matthew Fleming and Mark Ealham and then lost three wickets in four balls in the final over from Martin Saggers.

This setback leaves Yorkshire in danger of dropping into Division Two of the Norwich Union League and they must now focus on trying to win their last two matches to avoid the drop.

McGrath, whose previous best in the competition was an unbeaten 85 against Somerset at Taunton last year, never gave the slightest chance as he calmly went to his century off 139 balls with eight fours and a six.

He got there in the penultimate over from Fleming but two balls later he pushed to David Fulton at mid-off and was run out attempting a suicidal single.

Yorkshire required 13 from Saggers' final over but after Richard Blakey had run a single off the first ball, David Byas and Richard Dawson both saw their stumps go flying from the next two deliveries.

Ryan Sidebottom saved the hat-trick by carving a three but Blakey then attempted a six and was caught on the long off boundary by Andrew Symonds.

Yorkshire appeared to be cruising it while McGrath and Craig White were patiently compiling 108 for the fourth wicket in 21 overs as they homed in on their 217 target but it was the dismissal of White which triggered the slump.

With 20 wanted off three overs, White drove Ealham high to long off where Min Patel made a lot of ground to take an excellent catch to send him back for 44 in his last match of the season, England having forbidden him to play in the remaining fixtures.

Yorkshire's reply got off to a bad start when Matthew Wood had two stumps uprooted by Ben Trott in the second over but Gavin Hamilton played nicely for his 20 before falling lbw to Ealham.

Darren Lehmann looked in ominous form and was just warming up when he attempted a reverse sweep at Patel and gave a simple catch to Ealham at fly slip.

The Australian enjoyed a more successful role with his left-arm spin which brought him three for 31 after Kent had batted first on winning the toss, Lehmann now being Yorkshire's leading wicket-taker in coloured clothing cricket this season with 15 dismissals.

Updated: 11:51 Thursday, August 30, 2001