Bears fall off a Cliff as Vansh efforts in vain

BEN Cliff’s maiden five-wicket haul in first-team cricket - a superb five for 46 from 8.3 overs - set Yorkshire up for an opening-day Metro Bank One Day Cup win over last year’s semifinalists Warwickshire at Scarborough, by five wickets chasing 138.

- By GRAHAM HARDCASTLE ECB REPORTERS NETWORK

New-ball quick Cliff, aged 22, was playing his first first-team game since the summer’s opening week following a side injury, and was the chief tormenter as the Bears were bowled out for 137 inside 37 overs at the start of Group B.

He struck four times in a devastat ing opening spell, with Warwickshire slipping to 38 for seven before Vansh Jani’s brilliant 82 off 92 balls. It was the 20-year-old’s maiden first team fifty in his second game.

Yorkshire, for whom Adam Lyth took four catches in the slips, didn’t chase with ease on a tricky pitch, but Pakistani international opener Imam-Ul-Haq held things together with 55 off 83 balls.

Warwickshire first-team coach Ian Westwood said: “Being 38 for seven cost us. The pitch wasn’t easy, particularly with the hard new ball, but we were pretty slow to adapt to what was in front of us. Vansh was bril liant. One of the beauties of this competition is that you get to find out about people. We have quite a lot of inexperience mixed in with a few older players, and we were delighted with the way he played from that position.