Yorkshire Vikings held on to the Emirates Airline T20 trophy by beating Roses rivals Lancashire by 13 runs in the final under lights in Dubai.
Lancashire could only muster 119/9 chasing 133 runs to win, with Luis Reece top-scoring with 35 from 22 deliveries at the top of the innings. Yorkshire made 132/8 batting first, a strong score given the difficult conditions, with Gary Ballance making 46 from 38 balls to lead the Vikings' innings.
The Lightning earned a place in the final after beating UAE in a last-ball thriller in the first semi final, while Yorkshire beat MCC in the second semi by 13 runs, the same margin of victory as in the final.
George Edwards was superb with the ball for the Red Rose, claiming three wickets in Yorkshire's innings, including the crucial scalp of Ballance, who was in tremendous form after making an unbeaten hundred in the two-day Roses friendly earlier this week.
Adam Lyth (7) fell in the third over when he was caught by Reece at mid off, supplying Edwards with his first victim of the innings at 20/1. His replacement, Andrew Hodd, fell in the next over when he chopped-on to Kyle Jarvis (1-26) with an under edge, leaving the White Rose on 23/2.
Ballance continued to find the ropes with his conventional hitting, but he also hit the first of two huge sixes when he lofted Arron Lilley down the ground in the eighth over. He clobbered an even bigger six over wide long on, making the wicket of Alex Lees (28) a much-needed breakthrough when he was caught by Jarvis off Lilley (1-24) at 74/3.
Jack Leaning found himself back in the pavilion after advancing too far down the pitch and he was run out after a smart piece of fielding at short fine leg. Wicket continued to tumble to Lancashire's relief when a bit of extra grip in the pitch forced Will Rhodes to play his shot into the hands of Stephen Parry, who took a good return catch off his own bowling at 97/5.
Approaching his half-century, Ballance departed to a smart catch by Liam Livingstone at deep square leg, Edwards' second wicket after coming back onto bowl at the death. The express paceman added a third to his collection when he had Matthew Waite caught by Reece at long off, with just two runs coming from the penultimate over.
Some late destructive hitting from Steven Patterson, who hit 14 runs from five balls, made all the difference for Yorkshire, as they pushed their way up to 132/8.
A target of 133 was certainly within Lancashire's capabilities, but chasing under the lights made life difficult from the start of the run chase. Reece and Alex Davies started brilliantly and gave Lancashire the ideal start, with Reece leading the charge during his innings of 35 from 22 balls.
The Red Rose were propelled to 51/1 at the end of the powerplay, the perfect platform given the modest target they had been set by their rivals. Davies made 19 from 15 balls, hitting four boundaries before he was caught at backward point by Ballance off Rhodes.
Karl Brown failed to come to the party, adding only four runs to the total before he was stumped by Hodd to the spin bowling of Karl Carver (2-17). Reece fell soon after when he was pinned on the crease and judged lbw to Carver, with these two wickets putting a huge dent in Lancashire's run chase.
Wickets continued to fall for Lancashire, with Livingstone (8) the next batsman to depart, edging behind to Hodd off Rhodes (2-23). Hodd was in action once again when captain Steven Croft edged a delivery from James Wainman (2-25), with the Lighting facing an uphill struggle at 81/5.
Any chance of salvaging the match was put to rest when Luke Procter (9) was trapped lbw by Wainman, who collected his second wicket with five overs remaining. As the run rate continued to climb, so to did Yorkshire's chances of lifting the trophy, with the pressure forcing Jordan Clark to swipe at a delivery from Ben Coad (1-27), one which bowled the Lancashire all-rounder for five.
Patterson claimed his second wicket when he removed Parry for one, a wicket which left Lancashire in a chasm at 103/8, with the Red Rose struggling to avoid being bowled out by their rivals. Lilley made an unbeaten 15 from 12 balls, but it was not nearly enough to redeem the flurry of wickets taken by the Vikings in the middle overs, with Jarvis falling to the penultimate ball of the game when he was bowled by Patterson for six.
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