Shredded feat..

Sussex needed to win the match to be absolutely sure of taking the title but they were never put under pressure by Yorkshire who collapsed to a miserable 99 all out and the Sharks glided home with 20.2 overs and eight wickets to spare.

Although happy to achieve their main aim of gaining promotion in the Championship, Yorkshire had little to shout about in this competition and they ended it with a run of eight consecutive defeats.

An eight am fire alarm at the team's hotel in Brighton was too late to be used as an excuse for Yorkshire's sleepy batting performance after they had been inserted and their troubles began in the fifth over when Matthew Wood was lbw to James Kirtley.

Michael Lumb drove Kirtley high over long off for six but as soon as Robin Martin-Jenkins came on he spooned up a catch to Mushtaq Ahmed and fellow left-hander Joe Sayers was bowled off his pad by seamer Luke Wright, who claimed 3-20 in his nine overs.

The best delivery was reserved for Ian Harvey as Martin-Jenkins seamed one away and found the edge for wicketkeeper Tim Ambrose to hold a low catch. Wright's excellent return catch as he dived down the pitch sent back Tim Bresnan without scoring.

Once again, Simon Guy found himself in the situation of trying to drag Yorkshire to respectability and he scored a nimble 29 off 45 balls with three good-looking boundaries before he was lbw sweeping at Mushtaq Ahmed and Rana Navad-ul-Hassan brought the innings to a premature close by bowling Mark Lawson and Steven Patterson with middle stump yorkers.

Rana gave away only 11 runs for his two wickets off seven overs as Yorkshire's innings lasted just 32 overs.

Yorkshire managed to creep above their lowest ever score against Sussex of 89 at Hove seven years' ago but their score was insufficient to give the bowlers any real hope, despite Kruis flattening Matt Prior's off-stump in his first over.

Richard Montgomerie and captain Chris Adams carefully moved Sussex towards their target with a 60 stand in 18 overs before Lawson came on and snared Montgomerie into giving a return catch.

Patterson continued to show promise by bowling five tight overs which only yielded 12 runs but Adams and Ambrose suddenly took the attack to Lawson and the season came to a close with Adams' lofted drive for four which left him unbeaten on 49 from 83 balls with seven boundaries.

SCOREBOARD

totesport League

Division Two

Sussex Sharks v Yorkshire Phoenix

(at Hove)

Yorkshire Phoenix Innings

Wood lbw b Kirtley 8

Sayers b Wright 9

Lumb c Ahmed b Martin-Jenkins 16

McGrath c Ambrose b Wright 10

Harvey c Ambrose b Martin-Jenkins 1

Bresnan c & b Wright 0

Guy lbw b Mushtaq Ahmed 29

Cleary run out 13

Lawson b Naved-ul-Hasan 3

Kruis not out 3

Patterson b Naved-ul-Hasan 0

Extras lb1 w6 7

Total (32 overs) 99

Fall: 1-10 2-32 3-33 4-36 5-37 6-64 7-90 8-95 9-99

Bowling: Kirtley 5-0-18-1 Naved-ul-Hasan 7-2-11-2 Wright 9-1-20-3 Martin-Jenkins 4-0-15-2 Mushtaq Ahmed 7-0-34-1.

Sussex Sharks Innings

Montgomerie c & b Lawson 36

Prior b Kruis 4

Adams not out 49

Ambrose not out 10

Extras w1 nb2 3

Total 2 wkts (24.4 overs) 102

Fall: 1-7 2-67

Did not bat: M H Yardy, Naved-ul-Hasan, C D Hopkinson, L J Wright, R S C Martin-Jenkins, Mushtaq Ahmed, R J Kirtley.

Bowling: Cleary 5-1-16-0 Kruis 6-0-27-1 Bresnan 5-1-20-0 Patterson 5-2-12-0 Lawson 3.4-0-27-1.

Umpires: V A Holder and R Palmer.

Sussex Sharks (4 points) beat Yorkshire Phoenix (0) by 8 wkts

totesport League, Division 1

P W L T NR Pts

Sussex Sharks 18 13 4 0 1 54

Durham Dynamos 18 12 4 0 2 52

Warwicks Bears 18 10 6 0 2 44

Leicestershire 18 10 7 0 1 42

Derbyshire L'ning 18 9 7 1 1 40

Somerset Sabres 18 9 7 1 1 38

Surrey Lions 18 7 10 0 1 30

Kent Spitfire 18 6 10 0 2 28

Yorkshire Phoenix 18 5 13 0 0 20

Scottish Saltires 18 2 14 1 1 12

...and Tykes choke in title finale too

Yorkshire came within a session-and-a-half of going through a whole Championship season without defeat for the first time since 1928 before succumbing to Northamptonshire by an innings and 21 runs at Northampton on Saturday, writes David Warner.

The one consolation was that even a draw would not have lifted them into second place in the table above Durham. Victory, on the other hand, would have seen them finish top of the Second Division table and they would have taken home £30,000 in prizemoney, but they got nothing other than promotion for coming third.

If Yorkshire narrowly failed to complete a notable achievement, Northamptonshire succeeded. Spinners Monty Panesar and Jason Brown each took ten wickets in the match.

It was the first time two bowlers have done this against Yorkshire since Dick Pougher and George Hillyard each captured ten wickets for Leicestershire at Leicester in 1894.

Panesar followed up figures of 5-32 in the first innings with 5-96, while Brown took 5-65 and 5-95.

Yorkshire set out on their final day of Championship cricket this summer on 101-4, still some 198 runs away from avoiding the innings defeat.

Nightwatchman Simon Guy hit three boundaries off the left-arm Panesar before the bowler had him caught off bat and pad attempting to sweep and Yorkshire's last realistic chance of holding out all day for a draw disappeared when Michael Lumb went back to Brown and was pinned lbw for 36.

Panesar had taken the first five wickets to fall in Yorkshire's second innings and now it was Brown who did the damage but he was held up for quite a while by Ian Harvey and Craig White who added 79 for the seventh wicket.

Harvey cashed in on one over from Usman Afzaal, lashing him for three enormous sixes over mid-wicket but just before lunch White was caught tight on the mid-wicket boundary for 35 by Rob White to make it a White-White-Brown dismissal for the second time in the match.

Tim Bresnan batted soundly until he was snared by Brown who then had Harvey caught off bat and pad for 74 from 125 balls with six fours and three sixes in his last Championship knock for Yorkshire.

SCOREBOARD

Frizzell County Championship

Division Two

Northamptonshire v Yorkshire

(at Northampton)

Yorkshire First Innings: 177 (White 51; Panesar 5-32, Brown 5-65).

Northamptonshire First Innings: 467 (Usman Afzaal 157, Crook 97, Love 95; Kruis 5-75).

Yorkshire Second Innings

Wood c Wright b Panesar 13

Sayers st Wessels b Panesar 6

Lawson c Love b Panesar 3

McGrath c Love b Panesar 30

Lumb lbw b Brown 36

Guy c Shafayat b Panesar 12

Harvey c Shafayat b Brown 74

White c R A White b Brown 35

Bresnan c Love b Brown 23

Wainwright not out 4

Kruis st Wessels b Brown 4

Extras b17 lb17 nb4 38

Total (109.5 overs) 278

Fall: 1-19 2-22 3-43 4-101 5-113 6-123 7-202 8-257 9-262

Bowling: Wright 5-2-8-0 Louw 3-2-5-0 Brown 50.5-14-95-5 Panesar 46-14-96-5 S P Crook 4-0-15-0 Afzaal 1-0-25-0.

Northamptonshire (22 points) beat Yorkshire (3) by an innings and 21 runs

Division 2

Lancashire 16 7 3 6 212

Durham 16 6 2 8 205

Yorkshire 16 5 1 10 200

Northamptonshire 16 5 3 8 193

Essex 16 5 4 7 185

Worcestershire 16 5 7 4 179

Leicestershire 16 3 6 7 159

Somerset 16 4 7 5 155

Derbyshire 16 1 8 7 116

Updated: 11:08 Monday, September 26, 2005