A BREATHTAKING innings of 71 from Yuvraj Singh could not stop Yorkshire Phoenix from slumping to defeat by 16 runs against Leicestershire Foxes at Grace Road yesterday in the Twenty20 Cup.

Chasing a 175 target, Yorkshire appeared to be cantering at 101-1 in the ninth over but the dismissal of Yuvraj saw them collapse to 158 all out, the last wicket going down off the final ball of the 20th over.

Yuvraj was stunning as he made his best score for Yorkshire in any competition off just 37 balls, an innings laced with 14 fours and a six.

But he was outplayed by Leicestershire's man-of-the-match, Brad Hodge, who thrashed 97 - the highest score of the tournament so far - and then followed with three wickets for six runs as Yorkshire slumped.

New Zealand captain Stephen Fleming out first ball on his debut for Yorkshire on Saturday, fared only slightly better in this game, hitting the first legitimate ball of the innings for four, but then two balls later Charlie Dagnall pinned Fleming lbw.

Yuvraj joined White and so dominated that White contributed only a single to the first 67 runs of their 95-stand in eight overs.

In one over from Phil DeFreitas, Yuvraj punched four consecutive boundaries and his half century came off 27 balls with 11 fours. He then struck Dagnall over cover for six before blasting David Masters for three successive boundaries.

Yorkshire were 100-1 in eight overs when medium-pacer Jamie Grove joined the attack to have Yuvraj caught behind by Paul Nixon. Two balls later Michael Lumb was taken by Hodge.

Gavin Hamilton, playing in his first one-day match in two years and replacing Matthew Wood who was suffering a slight hand injury, was lbw to his first ball from off-spinner Jeremy Snape and although Yorkshire were well in front of the required rate they were unable to put their act together. Grove, Snape and Hodge all finished with three wickets.

Winning the toss and batting first, Leicestershire were well contained by Yorkshire's seamers but the tables were turned by Hodge and Nixon in a 90-stand in eight overs for the fifth wicket.

It began to go wrong for Yorkshire when off-spinner Andy Gray and medium-pacer Michael Lumb took over the attack, Hodge belting Gray's first two balls for six before hitting Lumb for two sixes.

Nixon also tore into Gray by belting him for three consecutive sixes but was bowled by his next ball for 43 off 26 balls with four sixes.

Hodge needed to hit the final ball of the innings for at least three to reach his century but was lbw to Pieter Swanepoel after receiving 61 deliveries and thrashing five sixes and seven fours.

Updated: 11:07 Tuesday, June 17, 2003