For the second time in a few days, a side chasing a large total has found itself five wickets down and in trouble before coming through to win at the last gasp. On Saturday at Lord's it was India who extricated themselves from what appeared to be a losing situation. Now Yorkshire have done the same thing against Essex at Chelmsford in the quarter-final of the Cheltenham and Gloucester Trophy to avenge their Benson and Hedges Cup defeat on the same ground at the same stage of that competition in May. This time Yorkshire won by virtue of losing fewer wickets with the scores level.

Batting first, Essex reached 283 for nine, which was not quite as many as at one time looked likely. After Nasser Hussain had fallen early, Darren Robinson and Jon Dakin put on 72 for the second wicket before Dakin was run out by a combination of ridiculous running and a piece of brilliance from Michael Vaughan who threw down the wicket on the run from square leg.

There were sizable contributions from Andy Flower (75), Ronnie Irani (32) and Aftab Habib (40) and a total in excess of 300 looked likely at that point, but Yorkshire captain Darren Lehmann brought himself into the attack to make life difficult for the batsmen and restrict Essex to their eventual total. They would have envisaged another twenty or thirty runs at the midway stage of their innings.

Irani himself struck twice to remove the Yorkshire openers with only 22 on the board. Vaughan and Lehmann were on course to repair the damage after Chris Silverwood had gone for a rapid 37, before Lehmann was bowled by former Yorkshire off-spinner James Middlebrook. When Vaughan followed for 42 and Yorkshire were 155 for five, the game looked to be all over.

That was when Gary Fellows joined Anthony McGrath. Batting with great common sense and by taking at least a single off very nearly every ball, they brought down the asking rate down to manageable proportions. Even so, they got to the last over, bowled by Dakin, needing four to win. That became two from two balls, and they got a single off the fifth ball of the over to bring the scores level and to ensure that Yorkshire got into the semi finals because they had only lost five wickets to the nine of Essex when the scores were level off a final dot ball.

The other quarter final – Kent against Gloucestershire at Canterbury – was not nearly as tense. Gloucestershire were in trouble from the outset. After Kim Barnett and Craig Spearman had taken the score along to 17, pace bowler Martin Saggers struck three times in an over. He had Spearman caught by Mark Ealham, Ian Harvey caught by James Tredwell second ball and then, two balls later, bowled Tim Hancock.

It took a century partnership for the sixth wicket between Barnett and Jack Russell before Gloucestershire even glimpsed a total that might have caused Kent problems. But then Barnett was out for 108, Russell went for 66 and a total of 232 for eight never looked to be quite enough.

That view was confirmed when Matthew Fleming and Robert Key put on 72 for the first wicket, with Fleming taking only 42 balls for his 53. Key and James Hockley soon followed and it was left to Andrew Symonds (47) and David Fulton (43 not out) to restore order and put the innings back on course. Symonds was run out and Barnett turned bowler to dismiss Matthew Walker before Paul Nixon used his experience to score an undefeated 39 to steer Kent home with five wickets and more than five overs to spare.

© CricInfo