AN immaculate innings from Andrew Gale reignited Yorkshire’s Twenty20 campaign as the Tykes comprehensively beat Derbyshire Phantoms with time to spare.

Gale carried his bat, plundering 79 from 59 balls in glorious sunshine as the Phantoms toiled to make any inroads defending a mediocre total of 131.

“I’ve been a bit inconsistent but have never really felt out of form,” he said. “I always thought that a big score was just around the corner and thankfully it came today.”

Gale thrashed eight fours and three sixes during his hour at the crease but had to show patience as well as aggression early in the Yorkshire reply.

“I had to bat out a maiden to start with but after that it just kept coming out of the middle of the bat,” he said.

“We’ve been searching for an all round performance in this competition and this was just about perfect.”

Derbyshire were never allowed to get going after winning the toss, Deon Kruis the pick of the attack with two wickets from his four overs at a cost of 16 runs.

He has Anthony McGrath to thank for making sure he got two scalps rather than one after the Yorkshire skipper produced an outstanding catch to dismiss Gary Park; flying away to his right at square leg.

Without Wavel Hinds, Derbyshire would have been further embarrassed but the West Indian looked assured at the crease for his run a ball 43.

Stuart Law also weighed in with an important 29, the former Lancashire batsman targeting Ajmal Shahzad to great effect with back to back fours over the fine leg boundary within ten minutes of coming to the crease.

Shahzad had to wait until the 16th over to get his revenge, taking a simple catch to remove Law at square leg as the Phantoms number five leaned back into a mis-timed pull to Rana Naved Derbyshire stumbled to their total but in their brace of recent Roses defeats, Yorkshire had scored only 105 and 111, so the hosts had reason for hope.

Gale ensured that hope quickly evaporated with brief assistance from Anthony McGrath for 15 and Michael Vaughan who eased to 17 before leaving too much room in looking to flick Mark Lawson round the corner and missed as the ball clipped off stump.

Yorkshire didn’t need any help to chase down Derbyshire but they were given it as Tom Lungley endured an afternoon to forget with the ball; leaking 35 runs from two overs.

Rana was in no mood to hang around when he entered the fray at No 4 and lashed Lawson for six straight back over his head first ball.

That set the tone for an innings of 20 from just seven deliveries and it was fitting that it finished in the same way that it had started, Greg Smith the victim this time as Rana rattled another six down the ground to seal victory by eight wickets with 23 balls to spare.

■ South Africans Francois du Plessis and Ashwell Prince shared an unbeaten stand of 104 off 65 balls to steer Lancashire Lightning to a seven-wicket win over Leicestershire Foxes at Grace Road and maintain their 100 per cent record in the Twenty20 Cup.

With man of the match du Plessis hammering 78, Lancashire comfortably reached their target of 148 with 21 balls to spare to make it four wins in a row in the North Division.

Derbyshire v Yorkshire At Chesterfield

Derbyshire

C J Rogers c Wainwright b Kruis .........4

G M Smith b McGrath .......................27

G T Park c McGrath b Kruis .................6

W W Hinds c Vaughan b Bresnan .....43

S G Law c Shahzad b Naved-ul-H .....29

G G Wagg b Naved-ul-Hasan .............2

J L Sadler not out ...............................7

D J Pipe not out ................................10

Extras (lb3 pens 0).....................3

Total 6 wkts Innings Complete

(20 overs)...............................131

Fall: 1-8 2-21 3-49 4-105 5-111 6-117

Did Not Bat: T D Groenewald, M A K Lawson, T Lungley.

Kruis 4-0-16-2. Naved-ul-Hasan 4-0-24-2.

Bresnan 4-0-26-1. Shahzad 4-0-33-0. Mc- Grath 3-0-17-1. Wainwright 1-0-12-0.

Yorkshire

A W Gale not out ...............................79

A McGrath c Lungley b Groenewald .15

M P Vaughan b Lawson ....................17

Naved ul-Hasan not out ....................20

Extras (w1 nb2 pens 0)..............3

Total 2 wkts (16.1 overs)........134

Fall: 1-22 2-100

Did Not Bat: J A Rudolph, A Lyth, T T Bresnan, A Shahzad, D J Wainwright, G J Kruis.

Bowling: Wagg 3-1-13-0. Lungley 2-0-35- 0. Groenewald 2-0-13-1. Park 2-0-11-0.

Hinds 2-0-16-0. Lawson 3-0-23-1. Smith 2.1-0-23-0.