David Miller crouched dejectedly over his bat at the non-strikers end with two balls of the Friends Life t20 final remaining and 11 runs still required for a Yorkshire Carnegie victory. Hampshire had survived a blistering assault by the South African batsman but he, nor any of his Yorkshire’s teammates, had reason to feel downhearted at the Swalec Stadium after doing the county proud en route to becoming runners up in this year’s FLt20 competition.

MATCH ZONE

MATCH REPORT

David Miller crouched dejectedly over his bat at the non-strikers end with two balls of the Friends Life t20 final remaining and 11 runs still required for a Yorkshire Carnegie victory. Hampshire had survived a blistering assault by the South African batsman but he, nor any of his Yorkshire’s teammates, had reason to feel downhearted at the Swalec Stadium after doing the county proud en route to becoming runners up in this year’s FLt20 competition.

Miller had been outstanding as he clobbered the Hampshire attack and kept Yorkshire’s hopes alive on Saturday evening. But, when Hampshire’s left-arm seamer Chris Wood bowled Richard Pyrah with the penultimate delivery and confirmed their 10-run victory by removing Azeem Rafiq to finish with 3-26 the dream was over.

The support received from the Yorkshire public has been fantastic this summer and the travelling contingent at the Swalec made sure the beaten finalists knew they had no let anyone down. Quite the reverse, the performances from Andrew Gale’s team this summer has seen a young talented side finally begin to do itself justice on the biggest of county stages.

There is much more to come and as Andrew Gale led his side to the boundary to applaud the Yorkshire support any disappointment was allayed by a sense of pride, hope and a belief that Yorkshire cricket was firmly back on the world map. That will continue in South Africa in October’s Champions League after the Tykes top two finish gave them the chance to test their skills against the world’s best.

Miller, who made an unbeaten 72 from 46 balls including five fours and five sixes to become the tournament’s leading six hitter, never allowed Hampshire to rest easy. He hits the ball ridiculously hard. A couple of straight sixes sailed towards the river Taff and one straight four beat a man 10 yards away by at least half that as it rocketed across the rope.

Hampshire’s main weapon was Dimi Mascarenhas who used all of his talent and experience to make the early breakthroughs. He bowled Andrew Gale and Joe Root as Yorkshire experienced early problems as they had done in the semi-final. Then 36-3 was rescued, but in the final 38-3 proved too tough a start to recover from.

Hampshire were convinced the’d dismissed Miller on 7 when he flicked Liam Dawson to Neil McKenzie at short mid-wicket, but the catch was referred to the third umpire who ruled not out as it was inconclusive whether the ball had carried. It threatened to be a pivotal moment in the game. Given a life Miller nearly made the most of it.

With 21 overs needed from the last two overs and 14 from the last Danny Briggs and Chris Wood held their nerve.

When Bairstow edged a catch behind Miller did not have the company he had to form the winning partnership in the semi-final. Miller crashed Sean Ervinefor three sixes in an over, but Gary Balance scythed to third man and Tim Bresnan, whose 18 was the next highest contribution behind Millers, skied the first ball of the last over into the off side.

Jimmy Adams (43 from 37) and James Vince (36 from 33) had led Hampshire to 151-6. Ryan Sidebottom was outstanding with 2-20, Azeem Rafiq took 1-22 in his excellent stint and Tim Bresnan bagged 0-18 from three overs, but Yorkshire were slightly below their best in the field.

They have set such a high standard this year it may sound overly critical to condemn a couple of miss-fields and an inability to find a perfect yorker, but ultimately that was the difference.

Many congratulations to Hampshire for lifting the trophy, but Yorkshire you can be rightly and hugely proud of your team.

JAMES BUTTLER at the SWALEC in CARDIFF

MATCH ZONE