A SWASHBUCKLING 76 from Andrew Gale wasn’t enough for victory at Trent Bridge as Samit Patel and Ryan Sidebottom squeezed the life out of Yorkshire’s reply late on to throw the Twenty20 Cup North Division wide open.

Gale showed his intent from ball one when he flicked Ryan Sidebottom to the fine leg fence as he exploded to his half century from just 35 balls with the Tykes chasing 166 to win.

Rana Naved opened opposite him and launched Andre Adams for a six straight down the ground at the start of a second over that would go for 19 as Yorkshire flew out of the blocks after a brief rain break in between innings.

The visitors were favourites at 42 for nought after four overs but Rana went to the first ball of the fifth from Mark Ealham when he clubbed the medium pacer to Will Jefferson at cover for nine.

Michael Vaughan was out LBW trying a reverse sweep for 10 and Jacques Rudolph was run out for two to firmly put the breaks on the Tykes but Gerard Brophy’s 26 from 22 balls kept it interesting.

Yorkshire needed 68 from the final eight overs but if they were still in the driving seat then, it was undoubtedly advantage Nottinghamshire when a Gale skier was held comfortably by the back peddling Kevin O’Brien at mid wicket.

Samit Patel restricted the Tykes to just two runs in the fifteenth over and Ryan Sidebottom exploited growing anxiety soon after when he bowled Brophy and Ajmal Shahzad in consecutive deliveries.

Yorkshire were left needing 24 from the final over and fell 11 runs short despite back to back Adil Rashid boundaries.

Earlier, Deon Kruis got the Tykes off to the perfect start when he bowled Chris Read for a second ball duck.

Matthew Wood exploded into action with four boundaries in his first ten balls and found Ali Brown eager to help hit the hosts back into the ascendancy when he wracked up 14 runs from three balls in the third over.

Hours after he was named in England’s provisional Ashes squad Adil Rashid was brought into the attack to stem the flow but went for 29 in two overs without taking a wicket. His young off spinning colleague Azeem Rafiq fared little better when he was hit for 28 off three overs.

Scoreboard

Nottinghamshire v Yorkshire At Trent Bridge

Nottinghamshire Innings

C M Read b Kruis ................................. 0

A D Brown b Rafiq ...............................66

M J Wood c Kruis b Kruis ......................45

S R Patel not out .................................32

W I Jefferson b Shahzad .....................17

K J O’Brien not out ........................ 3

Extras (w2 pens 0)....................... 2

Total 4 wkts Innings Complete (20 overs) ............................165

Fall: 1-0 2-110 3-117 4-149

Did Not Bat: P J Franks, M A Ealham, A R Adams, R J Sidebottom, L J Fletcher.

Kruis 4-0-38-2. Naved-ul-Hasan 4-0-32-0.

Bresnan 4-0-17-0. Rafiq 3-0-28-1. A U Rashid 2-0-29-0. Shahzad 3-0-21-1.

Yorkshire Innings

A W Gale c A D Brown b Ealham ..........76

Naved ul-Hasan c Jefferson b Ealham . 9

M P Vaughan lbw b S R Patel ...............10

J A Rudolph run out ............................ 2

G L Brophy b Sidebottom ....................26

T T Bresnan lbw b Fletcher ...................10

A Shahzad b Sidebottom ................... 0

A Lyth run out .................................... 4

A U Rashid not out ..............................12

Rafiq not out ........................ 0

Extras (b1 lb1 w1 nb2 pens 0) .... 5

Total 8 wkts (20 overs)........154

Fall: 1-42 2-70 3-78 4-113 5-137 6-137

7-139 8-152. Did Not Bat: G J Kruis.

Sidebottom 4-0-31-2. Fletcher 4-0-36-1.

Adams 2-0-30-0. Ealham 3-0-24-2. Franks 3- 0-15-0. S R Patel 4-0-16-1.

Notts beat Yorkshire by 11 runs.