The rain which prevented a start to any of yesterday's other Friends Provident Trophy matches in England finally caught up with Yorkshire Phoenix at Headingley Carnegie and most likely cost them a victory over Worcestershire Royals.

Having restricted their opponents to 215 for seven, Yorkshire were set a revised target of 214 from 49 overs following rain during the interval and they needed to be 24 without loss from ten overs to be winners if the game ended at that stage.

Even had they lost a wicket or two they should still have been able to make sufficient runs to be ahead under the Duckworth-Lewis regulations but, after reaching six for none from ten deliveries, the rain set in for good and the points had to be shared.

Worcestershire's final score was still far more than had appeared likely when their innings was briefly interrupted by rain at 173 for seven in 47 overs.

But when play resumed, Kabir Ali and Graeme Hick tore into Darren Gough, taking 32 off seven consecutive delivers from the Yorkshire captain.

Kabir Ali hammered four fours to end the 48th over and, when Gough stayed on for the final over, Hick belted two sixes and a four, the second of his big blows landing on the roof of the rugby stand.

Hick came off with 86 from 87 balls with five fours and two sixes while Kabir Ali made an unbeaten 22 from 11 balls.

The eighth-wicket pair made a mess of Gough's final figures, which read one for 68 off ten overs, but until that point Yorkshire had bowled outstandingly well.

Tim Bresnan was the most successful bowler with three for 43 but Jason Gillespie and Richard Pyrah gave away only 31 runs each from their ten overs with Pyrah also picking up the wickets of Ben Smith and Steven Davies, who both lofted catches to Gough.

Smith's departure ended a miserable few days at Headingley for the right-hander, who was dismissed three times in 15 balls for just one run.

Nobody bowled better, however, than Adil Rashid, who was making his debut in the 50-overs competition.

The 19-year-old leg-spinner, whose progress has already been closely monitored by England this season, bowled Phil Jaques for 13 and was the most economical of all the bowlers with final figures of 10-0-27-1.

Only Vikram Solanki of the early batsmen managed to settle in and he was eventually out to a stunning catch at point by Pyrah, who dived full length to hold on to a fierce cut with his right hand.