Royals beat Carnegie by 21 runs

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In the dug-out: former England captain Michael Vaughan at the centre as Yorkshire get set in front of the Players' Tunnel at Headingley Carnegie

Yorkshire Carnegie made it two defeats out of two in the Twenty20 after a disappointing 21 run defeat to the Worcestershire Royals at New Road.

After losing the toss and being forced to field the Tykes were eventually set 209 to win and despite taking the match into the final over they came up short.

It is the second game in a row that Andrew Gale’s side have had to chase down more than 200 and the damage was done early on by the home side.

Captain Vikram Solanki smashed 17 off Azeem Rafiq’s first over and along with Phil Jacques the Royals scored quickly to reach 74 for two after the first powerplay. The openers were the players out, both for thirty to Steven Patterson and Rich Pyrah respectively, but Worcestershire were already on their way to a large total.

Although Adil Rashid and Rafiq then picked three wickets in successive overs, to remove Alexei Kervezee (7), Moeen Ali (28) and Daryl Mitchell (6), Steven Smith and James Cameron then came together to propel the Royals forward. Together they added 58 for the sixth wicket before Smith was finally ousted for 34 by Rashid, who finished with figures of 3-32, but Cameron kept going to secure a fine half-century. His efforts helped Worcestershire post 208 and Yorkshire, without overseas batsmen Herschelle Gibbs who was out with a stiff neck, never looked like achieving such a high total. Three quick-wickets in twelve balls effectively ended their chances.

First captain Andrew Gale was ousted for 25 by Gareth Andrew after quickly moving the score onto 28 in the third over. Then Adam Lyth, for a duck, and Jacques Rudolph, for 16, fell in successive overs to Imran Arif and Andrew as Yorkshire’s top order was blown apart.

It meant the Tykes had slumped to 43-3 and by the time Gerard Brophy was ousted for 17, they had reached 74-4 after 9.3 overs. Jonathan Bairstow quickly came and went, for just one, before a spirited fight-back from Anthony McGrath and Rashid kept the game alive. Together they moved the total on to 140-6, but with the run-rate nearing 20 an over Rashid was ousted by Jack Shantry for 34 when he cut to Solanki at backward-point.

McGrath then went for 39 in the next over, the eighteenth, before a quick-fire 22 from Rich Pyrah and 21 from Clint McKay did at least take the game into the final over. The Tykes needed 35 from it though and the 4500 fans inside New Road were soon celebrating a home victory.

MATCH PREVIEW

Andrew Gale's men travelled to New Road last night intent on putting the disappointment of their opening game defeat against the Derbyshire Falcons last night behind them.

It was an unchanged squad that made the trip and with fifteen games still remaining in the Northern Division there is no need to press the panic button just yet.

One of the positives last night was the form of new boys Clint McKay and Herschelle Gibbs who obviously enjoyed donning the White Rose despite losing the game.

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YORKSHIRE CARNEGIE SQUAD

Andrew Gale (capt), Jacques Rudolph, Herschelle Gibbs, Anthony McGrath, Gerard Brophy (wk), Jonathan Bairstow, Adil Rashid, Richard Pyrah, Clint McKay, Azeem Rafiq, Steve Patterson, Ben Sanderson and Adam Lyth.

WORCESTERSHIRE ROYALS SQUAD

P A Jaques, V S Solank (capt), A N Kervezee, M M Ali, S P D Smith), JG Cameron, D K H Mitchell, B J M Scott (wk), G M Andrew, I Arif, J D Shantry and A Richardson