By Gary Watton
August 8 2014

With the talented Jonny Bairstow away on England Lions duty, reserve wicketkeeper Andrew Hodd proved to be a surprise match-winner as Yorkshire recorded their third Royal London One-Day Cup win in four days. What was most refreshing was that Hodd's eleventh-hour heroics finally laid to rest Yorkshire's awful habit of losing close matches.

Now the Tykes sit proudly atop their group with a highly satisfactory four wins from five outings, as well as the best run rate in the competition so far. In fact, only three defeats in their last three group commitments could possibly arrest the white rose's progress towards the quarter finals at the end of the month.

One should spare a thought for Matthew Boyce who did not deserve to be on the losing team. He had been responsible for holding the home team's innings together, after the hosts had slipped to 118 for six. However, the seventh and eighth wicket partnerships added between them more than one hundred runs which ensured that the home county would post a competitive total. Meanwhile Jack Brooks produced his best one-day display in a long time, as his two wickets merely cost 26 runs from ten impressive overs. Unfortunately young Matt Fisher found himself struggling today, but the prodigy is still on a learning curve.

When the visitors replied in early afternoon, their hot and cold top order batsmen slumped to 27 for two off eleven far from fruitful overs. Then there was a rain delay, and had no further play have been possible, the Tykes would have lost on the Duckworth-Lewis method. Instead, hostilities were reinstated in late afternoon, and suddenly the white rose had only a revised allocation of 21 overs in order to polish off a further 166 runs. This new state of affairs effectively presented the northern county with the equivalent of a Twenty20 run chase. However, in a mirror of the Leicestershire effort, Yorkshire's batsmen succumbed at regular intervals, given the urgency of the runs chase. However, just when Leicestershire were one or two wickets away from the tail, Tim Bresnan and Andy Hodd transformed the match. Then, after the departure of Brezza, Hodd and Pyrah required thirty runs off three overs. In the end Rich Pyrah struck a six with only three balls to spare after he had struggled to match Hodd's bravado. Phew. What drama. Yorkshire can now enjoy their weekend off and buy their stand-in wicketkeeper a few drinks. Next on the agenda is Essex on Monday and Derbyshire on Wednesday.

Leicestershire versus YORKSHIRE; at Leicester; Friday 8th August 2014. YORKSHIRE won the toss.

Leicestershire: 236 for eight off 50 overs (Boyce 74*)

YORKSHIRE: 193 for seven off 31.3 overs (Hodd 69*)

YORKSHIRE won by three wickets via Duckworth-Lewis method. Leicestershire 0 points, YORKSHIRE 2 points.