Gary Ballance (69*) and Azeem Rafiq (34*) added an unbeaten 91 runs for the 6th wicket inside 18 overs to rescue Yorkshire from a perilous 71-5 as they chased 162 to win by 5 wickets.

Andrew Gale was out of the blocks like Usain Bolt as Yorkshire chased 162 to beat the Unicorns. He cracked Querl through cover and pulled another boundary. Phil Jaques was more Yohan Blake as he paddle swept Luis Reece for four over fine-leg, smashed him through extra-cover and cut square as Yorkshire took 16 from the fourth over.

At 34-0 after 5 overs it looked like a walk in the park, but the Olympic officials called a false start as Rob Woolley produced an inswinging yorker with his first ball to bowl Andrew Gale for 14. Adam Lyth was caught behind off Querl for 1 and the Unicorns started to believe. That conviction grew stonger when jaques edged Woolley to Parsons at first slip. David Miller edged Querl behind and Yorkshire had lost 4 wickets in 22 balls and were 41-4.

Adil Rashid and Gary Ballance set about repairing the damage. Rashid hit two typically wristy flicks of his legs, one went for six, but next ball was lbw Hindmarch for 17.

Azeem Rafiq entered wearing Dan Hodgson's sweater, which confused the board for a bit. A bit of rain followed, Bradley Wadlan came on to bowl accompanied by a picture of Iain Wardlaw on the big screen and 78 were required from 14 overs.

Rafiq struck Wadlan through extra cover and the game hung in the balance as the hundred came up. A push through cover from Ballance brought up the fifty partnership in just over 8 overs and the pair were playing sensibly.

Ballance has been Yorkshire's star performer with the bat during the CB40 campaign and he used all his quickly increasing maturity to steer the Tykes towards the win. He reached his fifty from 76 balls with a straight six off Beaven to add to 3 fours. 15 were struck off that Wadlan over and at last the Unicorns heads went down.

The fielding got a little sloppy towards the end but all credit to the visitors, they matched Yorkshire in all departments.

Rafiq ended with a CB40 best 34 and Ballance hit Hindmarch for successive fours to end on 69 with his third fifty of the season to add to his century against the same opposition at Scarbrough earlier this summer.

Earlier, Ryan Sidebottom reminded everyone what they'd been missing during the last six weeks as he ran in to claim two Unicorns scalps in his opening spell. Bradley Wadlan will regret shouldering arms to one that nipped back and Tom New became Dan Hodgson's first senior scalp when he gloved a simple edge.

Jayden Levitt was caught and bowled by Moin Ashraf and Adil Rashid continued his good recent run by having Vishal Tripathi bowled and James Ord lbw with googlies.

At halfway Unicorns were 66-5. Luis Reece has impressed on his numerous incarnartions against Yorkshire this year hit Azeem Rafiq over longon for a six. He seems the type of player who won't die wondering. He was however bowled by Rashid for 25 as Unicorns became 95-6. Rashid finished his 8 overs with 3-24 to follow his career best 4-for at Northampton three days earlier.

Unicorns took their batting powerplay at 119-6 after 33 overs with their skipper Keith Parsons and Robert Woolley 26 runs into a seventh wicket stand.

The rain came at 141-6 with 36.1 overs lost. After a bried delay the match was reduced to 37 overs-a-side. The Unicorns boosted their score to 150-6 and a DL recalculation meant Yorkshire needed 152 to win.

Keith Parson finished unbeaten on 48 with 2 fours and a six into the West Stand during Ryan Sidebottom's final over.

JAMES BUTTLER at HEADINGLEY

MATCH ZONE

MATCH PREVIEW

Yorkshire’s CB40 hopes continue to hand by the thinnest of threads, but Andrew Gale’s team should be able to extend their slim chances against Unicorns at Headingley on Sunday.

Yorkshire skipper Andrew Gale is not giving up hope yet and stated ahead of the impressive win against Northants on Thursday evening that his side would give their all until it was mathematically impossible for them to qualify for the semi-finals.

The top side in Group C progresses and the best second placed side from the three groups makes up the semi-final line-up. The facts are, even if Yorkshire win their remaining four matches, the top side Warwickshire only needs one more win to take the Tykes chance of top spot away and the best second placed team is by no means guaranteed to emanate from Group C.

The Unicorns however sit bottom of the group and regardless of CB40 chances it’s important that the Yorkshire squad builds on the momentum gained in Northampton and takes that into the important LV= County Championship match against Derbyshire this week and beyond.

YORKSHIRE CARNEGIE SQUAD 

Andrew GALE (capt), Adam LYTH, Phil JAQUES, Gary BALlANCE, David MILLER, Jack LEANING, Adil RASHID, Azeem RAFIQ, Dan HODGSON (wk), Richard PYRAH, Moin ASHRAF, Ryan SIDEBOTTOM and Iain WARDLAW.

Fit again players Ryan Sidebottom and Richard Pyrah replace Steve Patterson and Alex Lilley in the squad and young keeper Dan Hodgson gets a chance to impress in place of Gerard Brophy.

The Club, after a chat with the ECB, declined the option to have Jonny Bairstow and Joe Root made available for this match. It was felt that both players workload and travelling commitments have been such lately that they would benefit from a short rest. Both players did the Club proud in the recent England Lions game and we wish them well for the next Lions match.