Yorkshire have secured promotion to Division One of the Natwest Pro40, but there will be a few more grey hairs in the squad tonight after a tense win over Northamptonshire.  Martyn Moxon described the day as 'a bit of a nailbiter' after Yorkshire squeezed home and then had to wait to see Essex beat Kent to ensure Carnegie an automatic promotion berth.

It was South African pace ace Deon Kruis who bowled Yorkshire Carnegie to NatWest Pro40 League promotion with an incredible spell of four wickets for just three runs in 15 balls as Yorkshire beat Northamptonshire by 4 runs at Wantage Road.

Kruis finished with figures of 4-32 from his 6.4 overs, demolishing the Steelbacks’ run chase of 183. They fell from 157-4 in the 30th over to 178 all out in the 35th over, despite a brilliant 88 from David Sales. Sales, the man who has been touted for an England call up for much of his career, was actually the last man to go. He was bowled by Kruis, but faced 99 balls and hit ten fours and two sixes.

Kruis had Steven Crook caught at short cover to reduce the hosts to 158-6 after Rana Naved-ul-Hasan had started the comeback by bowling Nicky Boje for 157-7. The 34-year-old also bowled Monty Panesar, David Wigley and finally Sales, while David Lucas was run out.

Despite wickets for Tim Bresnan, Darren Gough and Adil Rashid had earlier claimed a wicket apiece, while Rana recorded 2-39 from seven overs.

Ireland wicketkeeper Niall O’Brien opened up with 24 in a quick-fire first wicket stand of 34 with Sales and later Northants looked well on their way with youngster Mark Nelson at the crease in a fourth wicket stand of 45 with Sales. Left-hander Nelson walloped Gough for 14 in one over, including a six and two fours, on his way to 24. The pair helped recover the innings from 59-3 to 104-3, before Boje and Sales looked to have clinched victory with a fifth wicket alliance of 53.

That was the start of Yorkshire’s incredible comeback. Whoever said that low scoring games were the best was spot on here.

“The big thing for us it that we automatically go up into the first division, and I was just pleased to have played a small part today,” said Kruis. “It is a big honour for me. I always felt that Sales was the one that we needed to get out. He played unbelievably well. It was just one of those days. If you are honest, you are going to think at some point that we had perhaps let this slip. But it was always in the back of our mind that they had a long tail, and we just needed two quick wickets to put them under pressure.”

Carnegie were earlier helped along to a below par 182-8 by former Steelbacks’ wicketkeeper Gerard Brophy, who made 59 off 69 balls on his first return to Wantage Road since his release at the end of the 2005 season.

Gough won the toss and elected to bat on a good deck in the South East Midlands, but the Division Two’s rock bottom side bowled well, their trio of spinners doing the damage in particular.

Their South African skipper Boje starred with 3-34 from seven overs, off-spinner Jason Brown claimed 2-33 from eight, and England left-armer Monty Panesar was tidy for 1-25 from his eight. Rana and McGrath both chipped in with 23 each, while Jacques Rudolph added 22.

New champions Essex also did the business for the Tykes by winning their game against Kent at Canterbury, leaving Glamorgan facing a third placed play-off next Sunday.