Andrew Gale said, after two opening defeats, that someone needed to stand up and play a Jacques Rudolph style CB40 innings. Today the Yorkshire captain did just that, scoring 112 from 114 balls as Yorkshire made 254-7 and beat Kent Spitfires by 93-runs in Canterbury.

(PHOTO: The Yorkshire skipper celebrates his century at The St Lawrence Ground, Canterbury)

MATCH INFO

MATCH REPORT

Andrew Gale said, after two opening defeats, that someone needed to stand up and play a Jacques Rudolph style CB40 innings. Today the Yorkshire captain did just that, scoring 112 from 114 balls as Yorkshire made 254-7 and beat Kent Spitfires by 93-runs in Canterbury.

Gale had won the toss, Yorkshire batted first and Jonny Bairstow was promoted to open the innings with his skipper after his tremendous 205 against Notts at Trent Bridge. Bairstow is in fine form at the moment and raced to 26 from 19 balls as he played the pinch-hitter and Yorkshire were flying at 35-0 after 4 overs. He then tried to clear mid-off and was excellently caught by Darren Stevens.

Gale initially looked a little out of sorts, edging short of slip when on 5, but both openers were intent on maximising the powerplay overs, something Yorkshire have not achieved before this season.

Adam Lyth was caught behind for a first ball duck and Adam Ball was on a hat-trick. His attempt at the triple resulted in a wide down the leg-side. Yorkshire were 54-2 and Joe Root looked in great knick after scoring 95 against Notts. His timing is exemplary and he began clattering the ball through the off-side whenever the opportunity arose.

Gale went to his fifty off 61 balls which included 5 fours and 2 sixes. Jacques Rudolph's departure after a stellar contribution in last year's CB40 has left a hole that Gale sees himself filling by combining aggression with sensible play to bat most of the 40 overs. He performed that job against the Spitfires as well as Rudolph which is high praise. 

Joe Root did not play the reverse sweep well today, but has a liking for the stroke when legitimate shots had clicked the scoreboard along nicely. He regretted his third reverse attempt when he top edged James Tredwell to Azhar Mahmood at short third-man. He had beautifully for his 57 ball 43 and given his captain valuable support. Root's 4 fours had moved the score to 164-3 in the 28th over. Gerard Brophy was hit on the head by a rising Matt Coles delivery when on 2, but shook himself off and resumed with a new helmet and made a solid 28 before being adjudged lbw to Azhar Mahmood.

The Kent crowd gave Tim Bresnan a warm Ashes winning welcome on his return to the Yorkshire side, but he was bowled by Coles for 9 as the race for quick runs arrived. Shahzad holed out at long-on for 9 before Pyrah was felled with the first ball of the penultimate over.

The in-form all-rounder twisted his knee aiming over leg at the death and caught his spikes in the turf as he swung and did not re-appear for Kent's innings. Pyrah cut a sorry figure as he left the ground on crutches and it would be very cruel if he was to miss a large chunk of a summer that Andrew Gale later described as, "The season of his life". It seems extremely unlikely that Pyrah will feature against Hampshire.

Rashid and Sidebottom tto???ok the score to 255-7 and a couple of Kent supporters said that Yorkshire had 100 more than he expec?te?d their side could overhaul. ?They had made an astute assessment as Kent lost early wickets.?

?Sidebottom was on a hat-trick after Sam Northeast edged to Brophy and Martin van Jaarsveld sliced a drive to David Wainwright at third-man to make the score 13-2. Rob Key made 19 before being Tim ??Bresnan's first victim of the summer when he tried to hoist a ball over the leg-side and the resulting skier was caught by Adil Rashid at mid-wicket. Kent were 46-3 and teetering. It was noticeable how much noisier the Yorkshire playyers were in the field. Claps, jibes and gee-ups after every ball, the buzz was back. Kent though were subdued.

Rashid dropped a sharp return chance off Blake, when on 8, the leg-spinner diving to his right but failing to keep hold. He then held his head in his hands as he delivered a rank long-hop wide outside of off-stump to see Blake under-edge behind to Brophy as the ball nearly bounced twice. Sometimes someone up there smiles on you.

A better ball from Rashid accounted for Darren Stevens, bowled for 39. Kent took their batting powerplay at 115-5 aftr 25 overs as the rate required approached 10 an over and immediately Bresnan bowled Geraint Jones for 15. Azhar Mahmood holed out to Rashid at deep mid-wicket from Shahzad. Matt Coles was Rashid's third victim when he advanced trying to hit him out of the ground and Brophy removed the bails. Wainwright bowled Tredwell (25). Shaw found Wainwright patrolling the leg-side boundary, Root had a wicket and Kent were all out for 161.

JAMES BUTTLER at CANTERBURY

Follow all of Yorkshire matches ?on the Official Yorkshire CCC Twitter Feed HERE...

MATCH PREVIEW

Yorkshire Carnegie travel to Canterbury to face Kent in the Clydesdale Bank 40 hoping that an away trip might chance their one-day fortunes. Two home defeats to Netherlands and Derbyshire have left Andrew Gale’s side clinging on by a thread to any hopes of a second successive Semi-Final spot.

win against Middlesex at Lord’s. The form of Kent in Division 2 of the LV= County Championship has been poor, taking just 31 points from their first four fixtures means they sit rock bottom of Division 2. They lost to Northamptonshire by 4 wickets yesterday.

Unsurprisingly neither side have players featuring in the upper echelons of the CB40 Most Valuable Player rankings. Martin van Jaarsveld at number 30 is the highest after scoring 85 in Kent’s win at Lord’s. 20-year-old left-arm seamer, Ashley Shaw, in his first season took 3-23 in that same game.

Yorkshire’s one-day disappointments have been well documented. An inability to keep wickets in hand in both defeats have led to two unsuccessful run chases, both of which should have been well within the Tykes compass.

JAMES BUTTLER 

YORKSHIRE CARNEGIE SQUAD

Andrew GALE (c), Adam LYTH, Joe ROOT, Jonny BAIRSTOW, Gerard BROPHY (wk), Adil RASHID, Tim BRESNAN, Ajmal SHAHZAD, Richard PYRAH, David WAINWRIGHT, Ryan SIDEBOTTOM, Steve PATTERSON, Moin ASHRAF and Joe SAYERS,

KENT SPITFIRES

Rob KEY (c), Sam NORTHEAST, Martin VAN JAARSVELD, Darren STEVENS, Alex BLAKE, Geraint JONES (wk), Azhard MAHMOOD, James TREDWELL, Matt COLES, Adam BALL, Ashley SHAW, Adam RILEY and James GOODMAN.?