A record opening stand from Andrew Gale and Phil Jaques helped get Yorkshire’s Friends Life t20 campaign up and running as they beat defending champions Leicestershire by 22 runs at Headingley today.

The pair shared 116 inside 13 overs – the Tykes’ highest ever first-wicket partnership in the competition – to help post 170-4. Gale made 70 off 42 balls and Jaques 48 off 41 before Leicester replied with 148.

The left-handers fashioned an immediate response to Friday’s opening North Division defeat by Durham. The visitors started their chase brightly, thanks to Josh Cobb’s 46 off 28 balls, which helped their score to 85-2 in the early stages of the tenth over.

Rich Pyrah had taken both wickets, including Jacques du Toit with a one-handed effort off his own bowling.

But the game-breaker came when Cobb and Ram-naresh Sarwan (45) had a mix-up which gave wicketkeeper Jonny Bairstow time to throw to Moin Ashraf, who whipped off the bails at the non-striker’s end.

From there, Yorkshire always looked winners. Azeem Rafiq took two wickets before, with the Foxes needing 50 off five overs and five wickets in hand, Ryan Sidebottom turned the screw with some expert bowling at the death.

Pyrah, Rafiq and Sidebot-tom took two wickets before Mitchell Starc removed Wayne White, Ned Eckersley and Matthew Hoggard in the contest’s final over.

After only taking nine runs from the first two overs of the match following Gale’s decision to bat, Yorkshire’s opening pair got into their stride after Jaques hit Hoggard for six over long-on in the third over.

Gale, who hit six fours and three sixes in total, then edged a four, pulled a six and pulled another boundary as 14 came off the fifth over, with Yorkshire’s 50 coming up in the sixth.

The skipper, who notched a duck against Durham, brought up his half-century off 29 balls before Jaques hit successive leg-side sixes off Claude Henderson’s left-arm spin to take the score beyond 100 in the 13th.

Yorkshire lost some impetus when the pair departed in the space of nine balls, both falling to catches in the deep off Rob Taylor and Hoggard respectively.

And, although they could have been defending closer to 200, Bairstow (17 off 13 balls) and David Miller shared an entertaining third-wicket stand of 39 off 26 balls. Miller finished unbeaten on 30 off 20 balls.

Yorkshire face Derbyshire under lights at the County Ground tomorrow night (7.10pm).