IN 16 seasons with Yorkshire, David Byas never won a Lord's final, and only rached one.

But now he has set his sights on winning the last Benson and Hedges Cup in his first season with Lancashire, after a brilliant match-winning innings at Leicester yesterday.

Byas hit 91, his best score yet in the Red Rose shirt, to steer Lancashire to the brink of a modest victory target of 164 and book a quarter final at home to Warwickshire on June 7.

"To get to the final with Lancashire would be magnificent, and we're only one game away from that now," said Byas, who thought his career was over for most of the winter until he was tempted out of retirement by Lancashire cricket manager Mike Watkinson.

"At Yorkshire we had a steady record in the one-day tournaments and reached a lot of semi finals, but Lancashire were usually the stumbling block when we got there.

"It was just nice for me to contribute to this win because being honest, I've been struggling.

"It wasn't a massive score but one that could cause some difficulty. We needed one player to stay in and fortunately I was able to do that, with the other guys playing around me."

Lancashire had done superbly to restrict Leicestershire to 163 for eight after their captain Vince Wells had won the toss and surprisingly chosen to bat.

John Wood again returned the best figures, taking three for 33 from his 10 overs to take his tally of B&H wickets this season to 15 in five matches.

But all Lancashire's five-strong seam attack did their bit, with Glen Chapple and Andy Flintoff both very tidy, Peter Martin picking up a couple of early wickets and Kyle Hogg continuing his outstanding form with two for

27 in his 10 overs.

"As a pack of five they've done a terrific job but you've got to praise Hoggy for bowling his 10 overs straight through into the wind as well as he did," added Byas.

But Lancashire had already lost to Leicester in the group stage at Old Trafford chasing a modest target and they looked in danger of a repeat when Darren Maddy fired out Stuart Law and Flintoff in the space of three balls to leave them 78 for four.

Graham Lloyd followed quickly and it was 99 for five but then Byas, who had again opened the batting with Mark Chilton, was joined by Warren Hegg for the match-winning stand of 47.

Byas's 91 came off 148 balls with eight fours, most of them classic straight drives as the tall left-hander played mostly in the 'v' between mid on and mid off.

He was out with Lancashire 18 short of victory and Chris Schofield did the rest to secure that meeting with Warwickshire, who beat Sussex at Hove.

Byas's only previous half century in 14 innings for Lancashire was another match-winning effort in the Championship match at Edgbaston in April.

Maybe that is another omen that after his move across the Pennines, Bingo is finally set for glory at Lord's.