I very rarely use words like magnificent in a headline but today Gerard Brophy's young side were exactly that as they beat reigning domestic Twenty20 champions, Hampshire, by 73 runs at the Kensington Oval and booked their place in tomorrow's Finals Day of this Twenty20 Barbados Cup.

(PHOTO: Joe Root on his way to an unbeaten half century)

Yorkshire captain, Andrew Gale, had earlier vowed to stay up-to-date with Yorkshire progress via the website and twitter feed from England Lions duty elsewhere in the Caribbean. Somewhere he will be purring with delight as his Yorkshire stuck to their game plan and gave nothing away cheaply.

Joe Root played beautifully for his unbeaten 51 from 44 balls with 5 fours and was excellently supported by Richard Pyrah who made 37 as Yorkshire notched 141 in their 20 overs.

On a day when Michael Vaughan was awarded an Honorary Life Membership of Yorkshire CCC, the lad thought by many to be Vaughan's natural successor showed that his winter at the Darren Lehmann Academy had not been put to waste.

Gary Ballance attacked early to make 28 and Gerard Brophy, his opening partner was second out on 22. Brophy had earlier been dropped by Nick Pothas behind the stumps when he was on 8 and the score 20-0. But it was Root and Pyrah who added 62 in the last 6 overs who got Yorkshire into a position of strength.

Hampshire were never in the hunt, losing wickets far too regularly to make the game remotely tight. It was not a good batting display by Hampshire, but it wasn't allowed to be on a wicket that gave help to spin and seam, but where if you batted well you could score freely.

Wickets were shared around. Azeem Rafiq had the best of the figures (3-13) but good stints were put in by all.

And finally, mention to Gerard Brophy who put his hand up for the free vice-captains role today with inventive and regular bowling changes, a command in the field and he did not let it put him of his keeping - he claimed 4 stumpings and a catch. He did miss a stumping chance off Rafiq when Pothas advanced, but given the day Yorkshire have had we can forgive him one error.

JAMES BUTTLER in Barbados

TODAY'S SCORECARD

Earlier at the Kensington Oval the University of West Indies qualified for Finals Day tomorrow with a comfortable 8 wicket win over the Minister of Tourism XI.

MATCH PREVIEW

Yorkshire’s tour gets into serious mode on Saturday as the Twenty20 Cup gets underway at the Kensington Oval in Bridgetown, Barbados.

Yorkshire were disappointing in the same competition last year when they were rocked by a young and enthusiastic University of West Indies side on the corresponding Saturday. This year, handed arguably the hardest of opening opponents in reigning domestic t20 champions, Hampshire, the young Yorkshire side out in Barbados in 2011 will have to be on their game from ball one.

Gerard Brophy, the senior player in the squad, will captain the Yorkshire team against Hampshire seeking a victory that will see his side return to the Kensington Oval for Finals Day.

A defeat would see the Tykes ousted to an outground to compete against another Saturday loser in the Plate Semi-Final. The winners of the two Plate semis will return to the Kenisngton Oval on Sunday.

The Yorkshire side to take on Hamsphire

Gerard BROPHY (c,wk), Gary BALLANCE, Joe ROOT, Richard PYRAH, Lee HODGSON, David WAINWRIGHT, Azeem RAFIQ, Alex LILLEY, Ryan SIDEBOTTOM, Steve PATTERSON, Oliver HANNON-DALBY

The players on tour to miss out for this game are John Blain, Joe Sayers, Moin Ashraf, Gurman Randhawa? and James Lee. Anthony McGrath will not play on this trip as he continues to recover from knee surgery.

Saturday’s matches (all at Kensington Oval)

0??9.00 Minister of Tourism XI v University of West Indies
12.30 Yorkshire v Hampshire
16.00 Essex v Derbyshire
19.30 Warwickshire v Barbados

Sunday’s matches

Plate Semi-Finals played at Carlton CC and Windward CC at 10am
All other games at Kensington Oval:

0?9.00 Twenty20 Cup Semi-Final 1
12.30 Twenty20 Cup Semi-Final 2
16.00 Plate Final
19.30 Twenty20 Cup Final

(All times are shown as Barbados time – the island is 4 hours behind the UK.)

Updates throughout the day on the Yorkshire website and on the Official Twitter feed of the Club (@Yorkshire_ccc)