Academy captain Will Luxton’s eye-catching debut 68 preceded heavy Scarborough rain as Yorkshire’s Royal London Cup clash with Northamptonshire ended in a No Result.
Luxton, 18 and making his first-team bow, helped the Vikings recover from significant trouble at 69-6 to respectability at 222 all out having been invited to bat on an initially grey East Coast day.
The Bradford Grammar School product came in with the score at 60-5 in the 19th over and played confidently, particularly through the leg-side, to get Yorkshire back into the game.
Unfortunately, neither side got the chance to pursue victory as rain arrived five balls into Northamptonshire’s chase, at 3.05pm, with them 2-0.
Rain stopped, and a 5.50pm restart was planned with 71 more needed in 9.1 overs. But the outfield was too wet and the game abandoned at 5.30pm.
Yorkshire have now lost one and won one added to this No Result, giving them three points from their opening three matches.
Luxton hit five fours and two sixes in 85 balls, sharing 51 for the seventh wicket with Matthew Waite (29) and 93 for the eighth with Mat Pillans, who chipped in with a very useful career best 40.
New ball seamer Jack White (3-38 from 10 overs) impressed for the visitors on his List A debut, claiming three of the first four wickets to fall on a typically fast and bouncy North Marine Road pitch.
Fellow pacer Tom Taylor also claimed three wickets but conceded 64 in his 10 overs.
But Luxton steered the recovery with confidence having come into the side alongside Steve Patterson for England bound Dom Bess and rested Ben Coad from Sunday’s win at Leicestershire.
Duanne Olivier was a late omission from this fixture due to a sore back.
Tall, wiry and particularly strong through the leg-side, he played the pull shot effectively and whipped through mid-wicket and wide mid-on on a couple of occasions.
Having reached a 72-ball fifty, he later hoisted Taylor for back-to-back sixes over long-off and long-on.
He could have been fortunate at the start of his innings when, on five, Northants were convinced he had feathered behind against the left-arm spin of Graeme White (1-24 from 10).
Luxton is the fifth List A debutant in Yorkshire’s opening three RL50 matches and was bowled by Wayne Parnell in the 48th over, leaving the score at 214-8. By that time, the hosts were back in the game.
A number of White Rose batsmen fell going a touch too hard at the ball.
Jack White’s wickets, for example, saw Harry Duke bowled trying to drive, leaving the score at 7-1 in the third over.
George Hill was then caught and bowled pushing at one and Will Fraine (28) caught at deep square-leg pulling.
Luxton will take all the headlines for a knock which ended with him receiving a standing ovation from the Scarborough faithful.
But Waite and Pillans, who both hit four fours down the order, both contributed significantly to the revival. Waite’s 29 came in 31 balls and Pillans’ 40 from 60.
The South African was last man out in the final over when he skewed Ben Sanderson high to cover.
Yorkshire are back in RL50 action on Sunday when they face Somerset at Taunton (11am).
