KANE Williamson hailed an intelligent and clinical Yorkshire performance as they got back to winning ways in the Vitality Blast by easing past Leicestershire at Emerald Headingley by 60 runs last night.

The New Zealand captain starred with 77 off 41 balls on an ageing surface as the Vikings posted 187-5 before the Foxes replied with just 127-9.

Williamson’s first fifty since returning to the club as overseas player last month was backed up by Tom Kohler-Cadmore’s 53 before Jack Brooks struck three times with the ball and David Willey and Azeem Rafiq twice apiece.

The latter claimed the 100th wicket of his T20 career.

This win was Yorkshire’s fifth from nine games and puts them back into the top four places in the North Group following back-to-back defeats against Derbyshire on Saturday and Monday.

"In any T20 competition, you want to gain momentum, and it was important to show some improvement after our last game (Derbyshire),” said Williamson.

“I think we saw that on a different pitch.

"I thought the guys adapted really well. 

"T20 is fickle, as we've seen in the last few days. 

“We did see improvement. 

“At the top of the order, the boys played really nicely. 

"The guys with the ball, on that surface, were then outstanding and very disciplined. 

"It was a good team performance and a good base point for us to reflect upon and try and build even further.”

Williamson shared 67 in eight overs for the third wicket with Kohler-Cadmore through the middle of the innings.

"It was nice to form a partnership with Tom,” he said.

“It was tough to get momentum, but we managed to get into a position where we could play with freedom at the end.”

Williamson hit five leg-side sixes and as many boundaries, but admitted: "I found it quite tough to time for the most part. 

“It was about getting ones and twos because the wicket has aged with a number of games on it. It was still a good surface, but it wasn't free-flowing.

“Even though some weren't coming out of the middle, it was important to get off strike and contribute to the partnership. 

“We saw a lot of maturity from our batters, which was great.

“We played according to the conditions. 

“Perhaps the last game, we were a little bit reckless and not as smart as we wanted to be.”

Northamptonshire are next up for Yorkshire at Headingley on Friday night.

The Steelbacks are currently bottom of the North Group, having lost six of their seven matches.

They face quarter-final hopefuls Durham tomorrow night.

“It doesn’t really matter where anyone is in the competition because in T20, everyone’s a threat,” added Williamson.