One-Day Cup: Gary Ballance and Harry Brook combine to give Yorkshire excellent win over Leicestershire

In-form Gary Ballance and young gun Harry Brook hit superb centuries and shared a match turning fourth-wicket partnership of 211 as Yorkshire got their Royal London one-day Cup campaign off to a winning start by 213 runs against Leicestershire at Emerald Headingley.
By The Newsroom
Published 17th Apr 2019, 18:35 BST
Updated 17th Apr 2019, 23:57 BST
Yorkshire's Gary BallanceYorkshire's Gary Ballance
Yorkshire's Gary Ballance

The Foxes were cock-a-hoop when seamer Tom Taylor (three for 57) removed Adam Lyth for a three-ball duck and David Willey and Tom Kohler-Cadmore cheaply as the Vikings, invited to bat, slipped to 17 for three inside five overs.

But what followed was a sensational display of batting on a good pitch, led by Ballance and Brook, as the hosts amassed a record 379 for seven.

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In reply, Leicester could not respond. They fell to one for one after four balls and were bowled out for 166 inside 30 overs.

Seamer Mat Pillans claimed a maiden five-wicket haul, five for 29 from 6.3 overs, as Leicester suffered their heaviest defeat - runs wise - against county opposition.

Ballance hit a career best 156 off 133 balls, his third century in three innings having raised his bat in recent Championship matches against Nottinghamshire and Hampshire.

Brook, aged 20, posted his maiden List A century, 103 off 105 balls.

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“That was a very good," Brook said. “We didn’t start well as a batting unit, but myself and Gary (Ballance) tried our hardest to build a big partnership and got us to a decent total in the end.

“Tatts (Jonny Tattersall) also played really nicely at the end. Then, the bowling was outstanding. We were really ruthless.

“The pitch did a tiny bit at the start to be fair. There was a bit of seam, although there wasn’t much swing.

“Getting hundreds is nice. I’m very happy. Hopefully I can go on and get a few more hundreds in this competition and see where we’re at in a few games.

“We’ve had a really good start to the season. A draw and win in the Championship and a win here, there’s good momentum going into the rest of this competition.”