Wardlaw shines as Yorkshire bow out (From Bradford Telegraph and Argus)

Cleckheaton ace Wardlaw shines as Yorkshire bow out

9:57pm Monday 22nd October 2012 in Sport By Graham Hardcastle

Yorkshire’s memorable Champions League t20 journey ended in a four-wicket defeat to Chennai Super Kings in Durban today.

Invited to bat, the county posted a below par 140-6, despite Gary Ballance’s excellent 38-ball 58, including five sixes.

He shared 78 inside ten overs for the fourth wicket with David Miller (28 off 26), back in the side after missing the last four matches due to domestic commitments.

Ballance hit two sixes in an over twice off Ben Hilfenhaus and MS Dhoni, but he and Miller departed in the last three overs as the innings subsided.

Subramaniam Badrinath then anchored the Chennai chase with 47 off 38 balls after they had been reduced to 26-2 in the fifth over.

Indian captain Dhoni also hit 31 off 23 but some poor fielding from Yorkshire contributed to their loss with an over to spare against a side boasting 958 international caps to their 34.

Cleckheaton’s Iain Wardlaw and Oliver Hannon-Dalby both returned impressive figures of 2-23 from four overs, with Wardlaw picking up the prized scalp of Dhoni when he bowled him with a yorker. By that stage, however, the scores were level.

Earlier, Andrew Gale (23) underpinned an excellent start at 35-0 after five overs, but the White Rose outfit lost three wickets for eight runs in the next three overs to undermine their chances.

Losing wickets in clusters has been a problem for them throughout this competition and the departures of Gale, Adam Lyth and Joe Root in quick succession ultimately cost them.