Elliott's finesse takes Yorkshire to dreamland

Somerset 256-8 Yorkshire 260-4 Yorkshire win by six wickets

They cheered Matthew Elliott yesterday as if he was Herbert Sutcliffe's long lost grandson who had been hiding out in Barnsley all his life. Instead, of course, he is an Australian to his fingertips who came from Victoria two weeks ago as Yorkshire's third overseas player of the season. Neither his roots nor his reasons for being with the county mattered a jot.

Elliott's bravura century in the Cheltenham and Gloucester Trophy final salvaged the club's desperate summer. They are in a financial mess and they are about to be relegated from the First Division of the Championship they won a year ago. But all that was gleefully forgotten as their new favourite player struck his 16th four to ensure Yorkshire had a first one-day success in 15 years.

There were exactly two overs left when Yorkshire passed Somerset's score of 256 for 8. The holders were well beaten by six wickets. Elliott's innings was scintillating. He came to the wicket with Yorkshire in a spot of bother at 19 for 2 and immediately took control of proceedings. It was his first game in the competition (Darren Lehmann and Simon Katich, also left-handed Australians, have already played in it for the county) but his zest and application made it look as if he was doing it for the folks back home in the Ridings. He was relentlessly dashing in the use of his feet, he struck the ball fiercely square on the offside and incessantly whipped it through mid-wicket. He faced 120 balls for his unbeaten 128.

It would be incorrect to say that it was entirely a one-man show. After all, Elliott was outscored in a briskly assertive, unbeaten partnership for the fifth wicket with Anthony McGrath which yielded 103 in 88 balls. McGrath deserved a half-century but was left three runs short.

It was a disciplined and confident performance by Yorkshire after they had lost the toss. Not all their batting and bowling was perfect but they did both better than Somerset. They held their nerve at two crucial points: when Marcus Trescothick briefly threatened mayhem in the morning and when they lost two batsmen to the new ball in reply.

Elliott's endeavours bespoke the mastery of contemporary Australian batsmanship. It is three years since he won the last of his 20 Test caps. On Australia's 1997 tour he scored hundreds at Lord's and Leeds. He will almost certainly never play for his country again.

Somerset's total always looked slightly short of being adequate for a successful defence of the trophy, and well below what they seemed likely at first to achieve. Trescothick began where he had left off seven weeks ago.

It was at Lord's where he had played his last glorious innings of 109 in the NatWest Series final. He must have had two swelling fears about his first game since then: that he was returning too soon and that his wonderful run of form would not be recaptured.

His first scoring shot made such concerns piffling. That was a venomous slash through backward point for four which was followed swiftly by a dismissive carve to wide mid-wicket. Soon he was caught off a free hit following a no-ball and, as if to punish Matthew Hoggard for the aberration, immediately struck a six into the pavilion, a four through mid-wicket and another boundary past cover.

It was thrilling stuff; Trescothick is the real deal. But when he was 27 he took on Hoggard once more, driving him on the up into the covers. The temptation was to transfer the eyes to the boundary rope forthwith but before that could happen Michael Vaughan had sprung to his right at short cover and grasped the catch.

Trescothick at least had given Somerset momentum but they were never quite the same again. Peter Bowler and Jamie Cox rotated the strike well at nearly a run a ball, Somerset were 82 after 15 overs and they put on 81 in 93 balls. With Cox's departure, leg before, the pitch began to betray its slow nature, a facet which had not been obvious when Trescothick was plying his trade. When Bowler went for 67 in 87 balls, at a point when he would have been looking to last the innings, Somerset had to make do and mend.

Hoggard's bowling was a curate's egg. When he was not being flayed to all parts he was taking wickets. He was never consistently on the button all day but he is never one to let his spirits flag.

They lifted when he began to conjure some reverse swing. Hoggard finished with 5 for 65 from 10 overs. It was a bowling stint which embodied his travails of summer. Triumph was interspersed with mishap but he kept coming, or rather plodding, back for more. Another England bowler with points to make succeeded him. Andrew Caddick conceded the runs but did not take the wickets. Too many balls in his first spell slipped down the leg-side, too many were half-volleys. Caddick is not yet in the old groove.

Fortunately for Somerset, the wickets they have come to expect from him were taken at the other end. Richard Johnson, an England tourist of India last autumn, might have reminded certain parties of his credentials. In the same over he had Craig White caught behind and bowled a bewildered Chris Silverwood. Not long after he coerced Matthew Wood into an inside edge from an offside forcing shot. But Vaughan joined Elliott and imposed immediate calm. He did not hit a boundary in his 31. He did not need to.

The surprise was that he brought the bat down crookedly and was leg before a shade unluckily. It was of no import. Yorkshire accelerated to victory and now all that remains is to see if they have enough lolly for the statue to Elliott.

Lord's scoreboard

Somerset won toss

Somerset
P D Bowler c Blakey b Hoggard 67
M E Trescothick c Vaughan b Hoggard 27
J Cox lbw b McGrath 34
M Burns lbw b Hoggard 21
I D Blackwell b Sidebottom 12
K A Parsons c Sidebottom b Hoggard 41
R J Turner c White b Sidebottom 20
R L Johnson b Hoggard 2
K P Dutch not out 13
A R Caddick not out 0
Extras (b1, lb6, w6, nb6) 19
Total (for 8, 207 min, 50 overs) 256

Fall: 1-41 (Trescothick), 2-122 (Cox), 3-159 (Bowler), 4-171 (Burns), 5-191 (Blackwell), 6-230 (Turner), 7-233 (Johnson), 8-250 (Parsons).

Did not bat: P S Jones

Bowling: Silverwood 8-1-30-0 (w1) (one spell), Hoggard 10-0-65-5 (nb3) (4-0-34-1 3-0-10-2 3-0-21-2), Sidebottom 9-0-49-2 (w3) (5-0-28-0 2-0-6-1 2-0-15-1), McGrath 9-0-37-1 (8-0-29-1 1-0-8-0), Dawson 10-0-48-0 (w1) (6-0-30-0 4-0-18-0), Vaughan 4-0-20-0 (w1) (one spell).

Progress: 50: 40 min, 53 balls. 100: 85 min, 116 balls. 150: 121 min, 184 balls. 200: 167 min, 254 balls. 250: 203 min, 299 balls. Bowler's 50: 105 min, 68 balls, 5 fours.

Yorkshire
C White c Turner b Johnson 12
M J Wood b Johnson 19
C E W Silverwood b Johnson 0
M T G Elliott not out 128
M P Vaughan lbw Jones 31
A McGrath not out 46
Extras (lb7, w15, nb2) 24
Total (for 4, 199 min, 48 overs) 260

Fall: 1-19 (White), 2-19 (Silverwood), 3-64 (Wood), 4-157 (Vaughan).

Did not bat: G M Fellows, R J Blakey, R K J Dawson, C E W Silverwood R J Sidebottom, M J Hoggard.

Bowling: Caddick 9-0-53-0 (nb1, w4) (7-0-39-0 2-0-14-0), Johnson 10-2-51-3 (w2) (7-2-20-3 3-0-31-0), Parsons 6-0-31-0 (w5) (one spell), Jones 9-0-45-1 (w1) (3-0-14-0 4-0-20-1 2-0-11-0), Dutch 8-0-43-0 (w2) (5-0-22-0 3-0-21-0), Blackwell 6-0-30-0 (w1) (one spell).

Progress: 50: 49 min, 66 balls. 100: 92 min, 127 balls. 150: 129 min, 191 balls. 200: 168 min, 244 balls. 250: 194 min, 282 balls.

Elliott's 50: 83 min, 61 balls, 6 fours. 100: 161 mins, 110 balls, 11 fours.

Result: Yorkshire win by six wickets.

Umpires: J W Holder and G Sharp. TV umpire: K E Palmer. Man of the match: M T G Elliott.