SOUTH AFRICAN Francois Du Plessis hit an unbeaten 77 to give Lancashire a superb three-wicket Friends Provident Trophy win over Roses rivals Yorkshire.

Yorkshire scored 204-7 from their 50 overs at Old Trafford, with Jacques Rudolph hitting 65 and Craig White 42 not out, while Kyle Hogg (who plays for Delph & Dobcross in the Drakes Huddersfield League) took 3-27.

Lancashire’s reply soon hit trouble as they were reduced to 76-5, Darren Gough and Tim Bresnan with two wickets each.

But Du Plessis and Hogg (31) put on 57 before Glenn Chapple hit the winning runs.

Du Plessis and Chapple hit 17 runs off the penultimate over to win the match with an over to spare.

Play was halted for 95 minutes during the Yorkshire innings because of an unexpected hailstorm hitting Old Trafford, but there was enough time left to complete both innings.

The result means the Lightning stay top of the North Division and they are now the favourites to qualify for the quarter-finals.

Yorkshire now head to the Riverside for their four-day County Championship match against Durham which starts on Wednesday.

Durham ended the hopes of Scotland reaching the knockout stages with a 46-run win in a match also affected by DuckworthLewis.

Durham had made 181 for nine with Ben Harmison top scoring on 29, while John Blain captured three for 31 but the Scots were able only to muster 52-5 – 46 runs short of the amended target.

In the South West, Worcestershire thrashed Hampshire by nine wickets at New Road after Simon Jones took his best one-day figures of five for 32 as Vikram Solanki (81) and Steve Davies (76 not out) helped the Pears home.

Gloucestershire claimed a four-wicket victory over Somerset thanks largely to Craig Spearman’s unbeaten 140 in 119 balls.

Somerset posted 290-6 as captain Justin Langer weighed in with 112no but Spearman smashed 12 fours and two sixes in a blistering innings to take Gloucestershire home with 10 balls to spare.

In the South East, Martin van Jaarsveld’s second century of the competition helped Kent ease to a nine-wicket victory over Sussex.