This was an extraordinary capitulation by Yorkshire. They seemed to be cantering to victory in a must-win game, from which the losers would be eliminated from the Twenty20 Cup. Chasing Leicestershire's total of 164 for six, they had reached 98 for no wicket after ten overs, with Jacques Rudolph and Andrew Gale in full flow. Somehow, by the start of the nineteenth over, they still needed 25 to win.

Leicestershire's death bowling proved nerveless, with Andrew Harris conceding seven from the penultimate over and Wayne White keeping his length and his cool for the final six balls as Yorkshire fell 11 runs short.

With one game to play, the most that Yorkshire can muster in the North division is ten points, which may be enough for third place in the group but will not see them through to the quarter-finals, as the third-placed sides in the other two groups already have more points.

By contrast, Leicestershire came back from the dead and now face a shoot-out at home to Durham Dynamos in their final game on Sunday to clinch second place.

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The key dismissal in Yorkshire's implosion was that of Rudolph, who had batted brilliantly for his 61 from 39 balls before he drove Iain O'Brien to long-off in the twelfth over. Gale went in the next for 43 from 33 balls and all Yorkshire's momentum went with him.

Michael Vaughan and Gerard Brophy struggled to add 28 in the next four overs. Vaughan's woes continued as he missed a straight full toss from Harris, which he appeared not to pick up, and was bowled off his pads for 17 off 16 balls. While Brophy was eking out 15 not out from 19 balls at the other end, the game was passing Yorkshire by. How they missed Anthony McGrath, the captain, still suffering whiplash from a recent car crash, while Tim Bresnan and Adil Rashid had been whisked away to join England's Ashes squad.

Leicestershire had been set on the path to a decent total by some clean hitting from Jacques du Toit, who made 39 from 16 balls. He hit 20 runs in five balls from Richard Pyrah, including one towering blow over mid-on, and was given solid support by Jim Allenby and Paul Nixon, who both made 32.

Their total began to look inadequate while Rudolph and Gale were attacking in the first ten overs, but it turned out to be enough.

Leicestershire
M A G Boyce c Rafiq b Kruis 4
J Allenby c and b Rafiq 32
J du Toit c Lyth b Pyrah 39
*H H Dippenaar st Brophy b Rafiq 20
†P A Nixon c Gale b Kruis 32
J W A Taylor not out 15
W A White run out 12
Extras (b 3, w 7) 10
Total (6 wkts, 20 overs) 164
C W Henderson, I E O'Brien, A J Harris and H F Gurney did not bat.
Fall of wickets: 1-9, 2-61, 3-88, 4-114, 5-138, 6-164.
Bowling: Kruis 4-0-32-2; Shahzad 3-0-30-0; Pyrah 4-0-41-1; Patterson 2-0-15-0; Rafiq 4-0-21-2; Rudolph 3-0-22-0.

Yorkshire
A W Gale c O'Brien b Henderson 43
*J A Rudolph c Taylor b O'Brien 61
M P Vaughan b Harris 17
†G L Brophy not out 15
A Shahzad c Gurney b Harris 2
A Lyth c Nixon b White 10
J J Sayers c O'Brien b White 1
Extras (lb 1, w 3) 4
Total (6 wkts, 20 overs) 153
S A Patterson, R M Pyrah, Azeem Rafiq and G J Kruis did not bat.
Fall of wickets: 1-104, 2-108, 3-136, 4-140, 5-151, 6-153.
Bowling: Harris 4-0-30-2; Gurney 2-0-19-0; O'Brien 4-0-36-1; White 4-0-29-2; Henderson 4-0-27-1; Allenby 2-0-11-0.
Umpires: N G B Cook and P Willey.