Australian Greg Blewett knocked up his first half century for Yorkshire to guide them to a hard-earned victory over Scotland in the World Cup warm-up match at Scarborough yesterday.

Blewett, who opened the innings, was still there at the close with 57 off 40.1 overs as Yorkshire struggled to 131 for five with five balls remaining to win under the Duckworth-Lewis system for calculating rain-hit matches.

The Australian received the Yorkshire Tea man-of-the-match award but it was a close run thing between Blewett and Scotland's Gavin Hamilton who turned in an excellent show against his county colleagues by top scoring with 44 and then claiming one for 25 in eight accurate overs.

Following a delayed start and rain during Scotland's innings, the game was reduced to 41 overs a side and Scotland were unable to come to terms with a damp seaming pitch on which they dipped to 48 for four, Richard Blakey having a hand in each dismissal with three catches and a stumping.

Chris Silverwood and Ryan Sidebottom each claimed a wicket in his opening spell, Sidebottom gaving away only one run in his four overs while getting Mike Allingham caught behind with a superb delivery which moved away to find the edge of the bat.

Craig White was Yorkshire's most successful bowler with three wickets for 15 runs but seamer Matthew Hoggard also performed well and Ian Fisher and Michael Vaughan turned in encouraging spells of spin.

The innings was given some credibility by the irrepressible Hamilton who overcame an alarming moment early on when White greeted him with an unintentional beamer which cracked him on the side of the helmet as he ducked into the ball. Hamilton's bat flew out of his hands and hit the stumps but umpire Steve Bucknall had signalled a no-ball for the delivery which was above waist height.

Fortunately no serious damage was done and after changing his helmet, Hamilton recovered to pick up Vaughan for six over mid-wicket on his way to 44 from 73 balls with two other boundaries.

Although Scotland had reached 126 for nine, the Duckworth-Lewis calculation was that Yorkshire needed 128 to win and they got badly bogged down before Blewett took them home.

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