YORKSHIRE maintained their treble hopes tonight by defending 257 on a used pitch to beat Kent at Canterbury in a nail-biting Royal London One-Day Cup quarter-final by 11 runs.

A Vikings side including six current England internationals slipped from 117-1 to 256-9, with Adam Lyth’s measured 88 the standout.

He shared 90 for the second wicket with Joe Root, who made 45, but was one of a host of Yorkshire batsmen to fall to miscued or mistimed shots.

Liam Plunkett then impressed with 4-52 from his ten overs as Kent also struggled and were bowled out for 245 to leave Yorkshire facing Surrey at home in the semi-finals on Sunday, August 28.

They slipped from 53-1 to 66-4 before fifties for Alex Blake and Darren Stevens changed things, with them sharing 86 for the fifth wicket.

But Blake fell for 50 in the 31st over and Stevens for 54 in the 37th as the score fell to 180-6 with 77 still needed. That later became 16 off three overs with two wickets left before David Willey trapped James Tredwell lbw.

When Lyth and Root were together, it looked as if 300 was realistic. But seamers Matt Coles (3-39 from 10) and Charlie Hartley impressed.

Rookie Hartley had the prized pair of Root caught at deep mid-wicket and Jonny Bairstow caught at mid-on on the way to 2-42.

Gary Ballance was next best Yorkshire batsman behind Lyth and Root with 37.

David Willey struck in the second over of Kent’s reply by getting Daniel Bell-Drummond lbw with an in-swinging yorker.

Sam Northeast and Joe Denly hit sixes to give Kent some impetus, but two wickets in five balls in the 12th and 13th overs tipped the balance in Yorkshire’s favour. Northeast and Sam Billings both fell as the score slipped to 54-3.

Northeast chipped Plunkett to short mid-wicket and Billings was trapped lbw by Steve Patterson. And when Denly top-edged a pull at Plunkett to mid-on in the 18th over, the hosts were four down and still 191 away from victory.

Left-handed Blake and Stevens then hit three sixes between them during their partnership, with the former reaching 50 off 36 balls.

But he fell two balls later when he edged an attempted pull at Willey behind. That left the score at 152-5 in the 31st, and that became 180-6 six overs later when Plunkett (pictured) took a stunning one-handed return catch to remove Stevens for 54 after a leading edge had looped up.

Plunkett was not done there, removing Will Gidman caught and bowled in the 39th as the score fell to 191-7. Coles hit two sixes off Azeem Rafiq in the 40th before Rashid had him stumped in the next 212-8.

Hartley and Tredwell took it to 16 needed off 19 balls before Rashid trapped Hartley lbw to leave Kent nine down before Willey wrapped it up.

Meanwhile, Yorkshire have named the same 15-man squad that travelled to Kent for Saturday’s NatWest T20 Blast Finals Day at Edgbaston.

Yorkshire squad: Lees c, Bairstow w, Ballance, Bresnan, Hodd, Leaning, Lyth, Patterson, Plunkett, Rafiq, Rashid, Rhodes, Root, Waite, Willey.