Yorkshire's inexperienced side were no match for West Indies A at Headingley yesterday and they lost the coloured clothing contest by eight wickets after being hit by a Gayle-force blast.

The players' lunches were not ready when Yorkshire were skittled out for 139 with 10.4 of their 50 overs remaining and the visitors batted for eight overs before the break was taken.

Either side of the interval, Chris Gayle put the result beyond doubt by thrashing 49 off 50 balls with six fours and two sixes but Yorkshire were still able to draw comfort from some fine bowling by paceman Chris Elstub and off-spinner Richard Dawson.

Gayle, who joined the Tourists recently after playing for the West Indies in their Test series with New Zealand, fell lbw to Dawson, while Elstub also picked up a wicket in a ten-over spell which cost him only 31 runs.

But Yorkshire were still completely outplayed and there were 20 overs to go when the winning runs were hit. Matthew Wood won the toss in his first match as Yorkshire's captain and his was the only innings of substance against a pace attack which extracted lift and movement from the pitch.

Wood, dropped at second slip on 37, struck 48 from 58 deliveries with eight boundaries before dragging an attempted pull to mid-wicket off the bowling of Jermaine Lawson.

Yorkshire surprisingly promoted Gary Fellows to open the innings with Wood but the move did not work and Fellows soon wafted at Darren Powell to be caught behind without scoring.

Dawson survived uncomfortably for 12 overs and was then trapped lbw by Powell and following Wood's dismissal, Yorkshire went into terminal decline as Anthony McGrath was run out and Scott Richardson's wicket fell. Debutant John Sadler worked hard for his 19 before giving a return catch to Gayle and the only other resistance came from Simon Guy (13) who departed to an excellent diving Ryan Hinds catch at square leg.

Yorkshire's new ball pair of Tim Bresnan and the sturdy David Wigley came under immediate attack from Daren Ganga and Gayle and 45 runs flowed from the eight over up to lunch.

The openers had put on 91 in 18 overs and after Devon Smith had been caught, Runako Morton knocked off the remaining runs with Ganga.