One-Day Cup: Yorkshire beat Essex to set up Hampshire semi-final

Yorkshire recovered from a poor start to beat Essex by 25 runs and set up a One-Day Cup semi-final at Hampshire.

The Tykes, missing five England players, limped to 45-4 at Chelmsford before Gary Ballance (91) and Jack Leaning (57) shared a 129-run stand.

Tim Bresnan (41) and Matt Fisher (35 not out) blasted Yorkshire up to 259-7.

Essex lost regular wickets in the chase and Adam Wheater's impressive 78 off 70 balls came too late for the hosts as they were bowled out for 234.

The play-off game looked over with Essex on 159-8, but wicketkeeper Wheater and Neil Wagner launched an extraordinary counter-attack as they put on 57 in just 39 balls.

Captain Steven Patterson (4-36) ended any realistic hopes of an Essex comeback when he bowled Wheater with a slower ball at the end of the 45th over.

New Zealander Wagner continued to swing the bat but fell to Fisher in the final over for a valiant 35.

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Yorkshire will now travel to Hampshire on Monday, with Kent taking on Worcestershire at New Road on Sunday in the other semi-final.

It took a fine re-building job from Yorkshire's batsmen to get them to any sort of competitive total after Essex seamer Jamie Porter (3-25) tore through the top order.

Ballance and Leaning played with composure in their century stand, although Ballance was given a lifeline on 43 when Wagner dropped him off his own bowling.

Wagner eventually had Ballance caught behind, nine runs short of his eighth List A century, and when Leaning went in the 42nd over, Yorkshire were only 188-6.

But Bresnan and Fisher added 71 off the final 49 balls to take the visitors to a competitive total.

If Yorkshire make the final at Lord's on 30 June, they will be seeking a first limited-overs trophy since 2002 when they won the C&G Cup.

Yorkshire captain Steven Patterson:

"When we were 5-2 after two overs, and 45-4, you think it's a tough ask. But Gary Ballance stood up, the senior batsman in the side, and got a very important 90-odd.

"Jack Leeming as well. He hasn't played the last couple of games, so to come in like he did to steady the ship was crucial for us. And those extra 50-60 runs at the end just swung it for us a little bit. We went out there with confidence.

"We were four down after 12-13 overs, and we thought let's just get it to 35-40 overs, we might be seven or eight down, but let's see where we are. When we got there we said we'd take anything over 235-240, and 260 was a big boost."

Essex head coach Anthony McGrath:

"To be honest, we'd have settled for that at halfway stage, 260. And you've got to give credit to the opposition, Ballance and Leaning rebuilt. If we had got a wicket in that period we'd probably have kept them down to about 230-240. And in the end they ended up getting 80 off the last 10 overs.

"They gave themselves a chance, but we felt confident of chasing that down. In the end, Wheater and Wagner almost did the unthinkable but we just didn't play well enough.

"Everyone's disappointed, obviously. No one wants to lose. But games come thick and fast. We're going well in Division One. We've had a good campaign in the 50 overs, apart from this game and we've got the T20 to look forward to."