JOE Sayers smashed a superb century to secure Yorkshire third place in the Pro ARCH Trophy yesterday as they comprehensively downed Lancashire at Sharjah.

The 25 year-old cracked 132 off 142 balls to help boost the Tykes to an imposing 310-5, while Anthony McGrath also hit 106 off 108.

Lancashire were 140-9 when the game was abandoned because of a rain storm at the end of the 37th over.

Sayers, who also hit 55 against Surrey in the first game, scooped the man of the match award – 40,000 airmiles from Fly Emirates – and his ton was his first for the county in limited overs cricket.

“We have been working on some technical stuff this winter to try and alter his hands on the bat, the grip, his backswing, that kind of thing,” said batting coach Kevin Sharp.

“We want him to present a full face of the bat when making contact with the ball. It maybe hasn’t been happening before, but we are just improving the one or two percenters. As we have seen in the last couple of innings, it can make a huge difference.

“What Joe has started to do now is to score more runs on the off-side. He has been able to that naturally. I would say that over the innings he has had out here in Abu Dhabi well over half, maybe even two thirds, of his runs have come on the off-side. That is something that hasn’t happened for Joe in recent seasons.”

The 25 year-old left-hander hit nine fours and three huge sixes, carving well over the off-side on a number of occasions. He was given a life on 78 by Steven Cheetham, who dropped him off the bowling of Steven Mullaney at long-on.

Sayers reached three figures the ball after captain McGrath had notched his second century of the tournament off just 97 balls. The pair shared a second wicket stand of 237.

“Some of those were really big hits,” continued Sharp. “He strikes a very clean ball when he gets going.”

McGrath hit ten fours and three sixes, while Tim Bresnan hit a late 40 off just 31 balls to push the innings run-rate above six runs per over. Left-arm spinner Stephen Parry was the pick of the Red Rose bowling with 3-44 from eight.

Yorkshire got off to the perfect start in the field by reducing Lancashire to 27-3 thanks to a wicket apiece for Deon Kruis and Steve Patterson, and a run out. Kyle Hogg was caught at mid-wicket by Sayers off the bowling of Kruis, Mal Loye was run out by David Wainwright from cover, while Adrian Shankar was bowled by Patterson (2-20 from eight overs).

Paul Horton was then run out by Lee Hodgson, Luke Sutton (29) and Tom Smith were both stumped by Gerard Brophy off the bowling of Azeem Rafiq and David Wainwright respectively, while Mullaney was trapped in front by Patterson to leave the score at 109-7.

Wainwright (2-24 from eight) grabbed his second wicket when Parry was trapped lbw and Simon Kerrigan was bowled by Hodgson before the match was abandoned with Lancashire 140-9.