YORKSHIRE’S hopes of winning the double are still alive after squeezing past Essex in the quarter-finals of the Royal London one-day Cup at Chelmsford tonight as Liam Plunkett starred.
The Vikings set up a semi-final clash with Gloucestershire at Headingley on September 6 after prevailing by 20 runs in a bowlers' game played out on a slow pitch.
Both sides suffered batting collapses through their innings as the Eagles, bowled out for 232 inside 48 overs, failed to chase down 253 against the LV= County Championship leaders.
Yorkshire lost six for 39 to slip from 163-3 to 202-9 before Plunkett’s brilliant 49 not out off 32 balls, including three sixes and as many fours, gave them hope of a first limited overs semi-final since 2012.
The England all-rounder then ripped out out three top-order batsmen as Essex slipped from 95-1 in the 19th to 129-5 in the 25th.
Plunkett played a part in all four wickets to fall. He bowled Tom Westley for a polished 54, Jesse Ryder for three and had Ravi Bopara superbly caught behind by a tumbling Jonny Bairstow.
Sandwiched in between, he helped Adil Rashid get rid of Nick Browne with a juggling catch at short mid-wicket and finished with 3-58 from ten overs.
After losing the toss, Yorkshire advanced steadily through the first 30 overs of the innings, with the feature a fourth-wicket stand of 67 inside 14 between Jack Leaning and Gary Ballance.
Leaning top-scored in the visitors’ innings with 72 off 99 balls, but he was scratchy early on in part of a knock which included five fours and a couple of sixes down the ground.
He was one of the six wickets to fall, including three of those going to left-arm seamer Reece Topley, who finished with 4-56.
Plunkett then began his memorable night by dominating an unbroken 50-run stand for the tenth wicket with Matt Fisher, helping to take 46 off the last four overs.
The slow pace of the surface was indicted by a quartet of Yorkshire dismissals.
Adam Lyth chopped on to Jamie Porter’s seamers for an encouraging 36, while Will Rhodes, Leaning and Tim Bresnan all holed out to deep mid-wicket as they mistimed pulls.
Plunkett later hit strongly down the ground on the way to his fourth highest ever List A score.
After Bresnan affected the early run out of Mark Pettini by deflecting a Nick Browne drive onto the stumps at the non-striker’s end, leaving Essex at 3-1, Browne and Westley put the hosts in the box seat with a 92-run stand.
Westley reached a 51-ball half-century shortly before his departure, the first of the four Essex wickets to fall for 34 runs.
Sixth-wicket pair James Foster and Ryan ten Doeschate then shared 60 inside 14 overs to put their side back on top before the former flicked Rhodes to deep mid-wicket to make it 189-6 in the 39th.
Rhodes was superb for 2-22 from five overs, and his second wicket proved the key strike when he had ten Doeschate caught at long-on for 52 to leave the score at 206-7 in the 43rd.
Thankfully, Yorkshire closed things out from there as Bresnan took the last two wickets.
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