Craig White hit one of the greatest one-day centuries of all time against Surrey at Headingley to propel Yorkshire into the final of the Cheltenham and Gloucester Trophy at Lord's on August 31 when they will meet Somerset.

By a twist of fate, two days before the final Yorkshire are to hold an extraordinary general meeting which will seek to double their borrowing power amid speculation that if they cannot raise a further £2m they may not be able to go on paying the players' wages.

White and his opening partner Matthew Wood (57) thrashed 167 together in 24.1 overs to rush Yorkshire to a ten-wicket victory under the Duckworth-Lewis system for calculating rain-hit matches.

The pair pulverised Surrey's attack to such an extent that when White smashed the winning four to raise his century, Yorkshire would still have been in front by the 25th over if their score had been 72 without loss.

When he came off the field to a standing ovation he had plundered 16 fours and a six and had taken only 78 balls to complete the third one-day century of his career.

No wonder he received a bear-hug from skipper Darren Lehmann as he crossed the rope or that he received the man-of-the-match gold award because earlier in the game he also starred with the ball by capturing four wickets for 35 runs off ten demanding overs.

So Yorkshire reach their first final in the competition since 1969 when they beat Derbyshire at Lord's in what was then the Gillette Cup.

They eventually overpowered Surrey after a long and tortuous journey in which no play was possible on the three allotted days last week and the rule book was then thrown out of the window in order that the match could take place yesterday.

Surrey scored 173 for eight in 48 overs and Yorkshire's immediate target was 179 off the same number of overs, but the hold-up caused it to be revised to 167 in 42 overs.

Only Mark Ramprakash had looked in any sort of form on a slow pitch of variable bounce and he made a patient 63 off 114 balls with four fours before being run out by Lehmann's direct hit on the stumps.

But White and Wood both decided to launch an immediate attack with spectacular results which left Surrey's bowling figures looking a sorry mess.

Wood's fine effort contained seven fours and a six and lasted for 69 balls.

White denied afterwards that it was the constant threat of rain which had decided the tactics.

"The weather is always out of your control and we tried to forget about it," he said.

"We had a plan and we batted to it and now it is going to be a great day out at Lord's which I am already looking forward to."