AARON Finch described his stunning 89 off 46 balls as "hollow" tonight as Yorkshire crashed out of the NatWest T20 Blast following a thrilling six-wicket defeat to Nottinghamshire at Headingley.

The powerful Aussie hit four fours and seven sixes to underpin 200-5, which also included a brutal 60 off 34 balls from Jonny Bairstow.

A win would have taken the Vikings through to the quarter-finals in their last North Division match and Finch's Yorkshire farewell.

But Alex Hales hit 67 off 40 balls in the Notts reply, and then 35 not out off 14 from James Taylor and an unbeaten 19 off six from James Franklin carried the Outlaws home when all looked lost.

Taylor hit the lion's share of 20 off the penultimate over from Ryan Sidebottom to take a target of 26 off the last two down to six off the last and prevent Yorkshire from facing Essex at Chelmsford in the last eight.

"I thought we had enough runs on that wicket," said Finch. "Credit to Notts for the way they pressed throughout the innings.

"They were never really a long way behind the rate. In a situation like that, it just takes one or two big overs to change it, and they got that.

"When you've got wickets in hand, you can make up a lot of ground. They definitely did that. Credit to them. We didn't field particularly well. We probably leaked 20 runs and a couple of catches went down. Nobody means to do that. It was a disappointing loss.

"I thought I struck them quite well. It was bitter sweet not to get a victory. It was pretty hollow."

Finch hit only his second half-century in ten T20 innings for Yorkshire, peppering the boundaries at long-on and straight to thrill an 8,600 crowd.

Unfortunately, Hales was dropped twice on 26 and 48 before Franklin hit the last two balls of the 18th over from Rich Pyrah for six to take a target of 38 from 2.2 overs down to 26 off the last.

Yorkshire's Royal London one-day Cup campaign starts against Lancashire at Emirates Old Trafford tomorrow (2pm).