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Wood seals victory

Chelmsford. Yorkshire (223-7) bt Essex (220-9) by 3 wkts

With Matthew Wood scoring a scintillating 48 off 47 balls, Yorkshire plundered 78 runs in the last 10 overs to extend their run of wins to three. They clinched the issue with only three balls to spare.

Wood had come in with Yorkshire needing 91 runs off 15 overs, and, not long after his arrival, Anthony McGrath, who had played freely for 38 fell lbw to the first ball of Ashley Cowan's last spell. Richard Blakey, feeding Wood the strike, helped add 49.

The decisive over was the 40th, bowled by Mark Illot, in which Wood drove three fours and which yielded 17 runs. The third of Wood's boundary hits would have been cut off had Paul Prichard and Darren Robinson, running frenziedly from opposite directions, not collided.

Gary Fellows, making only his fourth appearance, was not fazed by the tense situation and played sensibly before being caught with an uppish drive to the last ball of the penultimate over. Four of the seven runs left were got by Wood with a lofted cover drive and then, with the field drawn in to stop the single, Chris Silverwood made the winning hit with a straight drive off Irani.

The major contributions to Essex's innings, which progressed unevenly, were a fluent and polished 49 by Prichard and a typically boisterous 55 by Ronnie Irani, made off 69 balls, with five fours.

Irani had to devote himself to stabilising the innings before going on the offensive. Timothy Walton added a rapid 23 to a stand of 42 with Irani before holing out to deep midwicket, but Irani remained until less than three overs remained when he aimed across the line.