YORKSHIRE captain David Byas was furious after the lights went out on the Phoenix at Old Trafford last night.

Lancashire claimed their second Roses victory in six days in unusual circumstances, with one of the floodlights failing just as Neil Fairbrother reached his half century to steer them to the brink of victory.

Confusion reigned for 20 minutes as engineers battled to get the light back on. They succeeded, and the umpires Mervyn Kitchen and Mike Harris ruled that under the Duckworth-Lewis rules Lancashire needed seven more runs from 33 balls - instead of the 19 from 51 they had needed before the stoppage.

Fairbrother and Warren Hegg knocked those runs off with no problem to extend Lancashire's lead over Worcestershire at the top of the table to six points - to the delight of an excellent crowd of 12,626. But Byas said: "It was absurd that the Duckworth-Lewis method should be used in this context.

"I made my views known to the umpires, but we abide by what they say and the game had to continue. But I'm sure my committee will be looking at this." Byas was understandably disappointed after the latest one-day defeat for Yorkshire. When they beat Lancashire at Old Trafford in the NatWest Trophy quarter finals last month, they were on course for a one-day treble. Now they have lost to Gloucestershire in the Super Cup final at Lord's and the NatWest semi at Bristol on Sunday, and are in danger of relegation to the National League's Second Division.

Lancashire's win was set up by the bowlers after John Crawley had surprisingly chosen to bat second under the lights. Peter Martin and Ian Austin were accurate, Glen Chapple claimed three late wickets for 34 and Andy Flintoff took 2-24 in an impressive nine-over burst but Muttiah Muralitharan was the star with two spectacular wickets for 33.

Lightning then slumped into trouble at 19-3 against speedy Yorkshire left-armer Paul Hutchison. But Fairbrother dug them out of trouble in stands of 38 with Crawley and 53 with Graham Lloyd, reaching his fourth one-day 50 for Lancashire this season from 80 balls with four fours.

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