Rich Pyrah became the first man to take five wickets for Yorkshire in t20 cricket as the hosts scrambled to a three-wicket win over Durham at Scarborough yesterday.

The 28-year-old all-rounder finished with excellent figures of 5-16 from his four overs to restrict the visitors to 144-8 after Andrew Gale had won the toss and elected to bowl first.

His good work, however, was nearly undone by the White Rose batsmen after a flying start from Gale and Joe Sayers in reply.

Sayers hit two sixes in 20 off 12 balls, while Gale hit 34 off 19 as the pair added 42 for the first wicket in four-and-a-half overs.

But they were two of five wickets to fall for 41 runs as the hosts fell into trouble at 83-5 in the 12th.

Medium pacers Paul Collingwood and Dale Benkenstein struck twice each, while Gareth Breese held four catches. It was a carbon copy of a handful of previous Yorkshire displays this summer when their openers have started like a train before the middle order got stuck trying to maintain the impetus.

But a superb 48 off 35 balls from Gary Ballance, who found the boundary six times, steadied the ship before Pyrah completed his stellar day with 17 not out off seven balls, including a six wide of long-on off Mitch Claydon to seal the win with three balls to spare.

Yorkshire’s first win in five North Division matches keeps their slim hopes of qualifying for the quarter-final alive with one match left against Derbyshire on Friday, although other results could knock them out tomorrow.

Pyrah also held the previous best Tyke bowling figures of 4-20 with team-mate Adil Rashid, and there have only been seven better sets of figures than yesterday’s in the history of this format in England.

He had openers Phil Mustard and Gordon Muchall caught at mid-wicket and Collingwood caught at mid-on to help leave the visitors in strife at 39-4 in the eighth over.

He later bowled Benkenstein for 33 and had Breese caught behind by Gerard Brophy with successive balls in the 17th over, only being denied a hat-trick by a Liam Plunkett inside edge when lbw looked likely.

Ben Sanderson and Rashid also struck, while Pyrah effected the run out of Plunkett with the last ball of the innings as the batsmen tried to scramble two.

Despite Pyrah’s efforts, Durham will have been reasonably happy with their efforts after their struggles in the early stages of their innings.

They had captain Benkenstein and South African overseas star David Miller to thank for a recovery as they shared 77 inside nine overs for the fifth wicket. They hit seven fours and three sixes between them as Miller finished with 54 off 41 balls.

Tim Bresnan is available for today’s County Championship clash against relegation rivals Worcestershire at Scarborough.