A dislocated finger gave Richard Blakey the chance to guide Yorkshire to a Roses victory by four wickets with 27 balls to spare at Headingley yesterday in the Benson and Hedges Cup.

SCOREBOARD

Benson and Hedges Cup

Yorkshire v Lancashire

(at Headingley)

Yorkshire won toss

Lancashire

Atherton b Hamilton3

Crawley c Blakey b White 45

Fairbrother c Blakey b White11

Ganguly c Vaughan b White5

Flintoff c Vaughan b Hamilton 35

Lloyd c Wood b Hamilton 24

Hegg c Blakey b Gough 4

Austin c Blakey b White9

Chapple not out 3

Yates c Vaughan b White 1

Extras lb7 w17 nb2 26

Total (9 wkts, 40 overs, innings complete) 166

Fall: 1-38 2-72 3-80 4-86 5-148 6-148 7-159 8-164 9-166

Did not bat: Martin.

Bowling: Gough 10-1-23-1 Hoggard 10-3-33-0 Hamilton 8-2-24-3 Sidebottom 6-0-37-0 White 10-4-25-5 Vaughan 6-0-17-0 .

Yorkshire

Byas b Martin 10

White lbw b Ganguly 21

Vaughan lbw b Ganguly 6

Lehmann c Crawley b Ganguly 0

Wood lbw b Flintoff 11

Fellows c Fairbrother b Austin 18

Blakey not out 33

Hamilton not out 28

Extras b1 lb6 w29 nb4 40

Total (6 wkts, 45.3 overs) 167

Fall: 1-30 2-47 3-47 4-62 5-74 6-103

Did not bat: Gough, Sidebottom, Hoggard.

Bowling: Martin 8-0-39-1 Austin 7.3-1-39-1 Chapple 10-0-33-0 Ganguly 10-2-31-3 Flintoff 10-3-18-1.

Yorkshire beat Lancashire by 4 wkts

Blakey did the damage while keeping wicket when he dropped a catch offered by Andy Flintoff and after having his left ring finger put back in place by physiotherapist Caryl Becker he briefly left the field for further attention.

As a result of the painful injury, Blakey was dropped down the batting order four places from his scheduled No 3 spot and when he arrived at the crease Yorkshire were in big trouble on 74 for five as they chased a 167 target.

Blakey gritted his teeth and got Yorkshire out of trouble in an unbroken seventh wicket partnership of 64 in 12 overs with Gavin Hamilton, Blakey ending on 33 and Hamilton 28.

Despite his heroics, however, Blakey - who also held four catches - could not stop the man-of-the-match gold award going to England all-rounder Craig White who returned career-best figures of five for 25, the third best Yorkshire bowling analysis on record in B&H cricket.

White's victims included Lancashire skipper John Crawley who was his side's top-scorer with 45 after David Byas had won the toss and put his Red Rose opponents in to bat.

Hamilton was also on the mark, bowling Michael Atherton who pottered around for 15 overs in making three, and also getting rid of the dangerous Flintoff and Graham Lloyd.

Byas and White got Yorkhire off to a brisk start with a 30 opening stand but once the captain had lost his off-stump to a swinging delivery from Peter Martin, the initiative swung Lancashire's way through an inspired piece of medium-pace bowling by India's captain Sourav Ganguly.

The all-rounder caused a double shock in his first over by getting Michael Vaughan lbw and three balls later having Darren Lehmann caught at cover point, the Australian left-hander registering only his second duck for Yorkshire in 44 one-day innings in major competitions.

Matthew Wood relieved the pressure with a mid-wicket six off Ganguly before being lbw to Flintoff to bring in Blakey who found a nimble partner in Hamilton after Gary Fellows had also given some solid support.

The victory came as a relief to Yorkshire after stumbling against Durham but the game was marred by the high number of wides, Lancashire sending down 26 of them and Yorkshire 17.

Chris Silverwood pulled out just before the start with a sore heel but he will be fit for Wednesday's B&H game at Headingley against Leicestershire.

Anthony McGrath had hoped to be fit by then for his first game of the season but he is now to have an arthroscopy on his injured knee and will be out for at least a fortnight.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.