Due to rain the match needed a second day's play. The first day started 30 minutes late (due to wet ground) and lasted 12.3 overs. At that point Ireland, who had been sent in, were 33 for 3. After this bad start the Irish coach hoped (optimistically!) for a score of 200. Off the last ball of the 50th over Johan Botha, new cap and unqualified player, hit Bresnan for a six over long-on to bring the score from 195 to 201 for seven. The Irish display remained respectable when Yorkshire took 47.4 overs to get the runs, even if the second Yorkshire wicket did not fall until the 36th over with the score at 156.

This was Ireland's twelfth match against Yorkshire. The first was in Woodbrook in 1907 and latterly there have been three matches in the NatWest Trophy, all at Headingly, over a five year period, 1993-97. Yorkshire's survivors from the 1997 match were C White and A McGrath. PJ Hartley, an umpire in this match, also played in the match in 1997 and saved Yorkshire with a score of 83 when his team were 45 for 5. Yorkshire in this game fielded 5 Test players, two of them current, Vaughan, England Captain, and Hoggard, and the other three were McGrath, Dawson and White, the latter being Yorkshire's current captain. Harvey had played one day Internationals for Australia.

For the Irish team two of the 13 who had played in England 10 days previously were left out. They were PJK Mooney and N Shoukat. Both of these were bowlers and Shoukat had the best bowling figures in the Irish team in 2004. A third member of that 13, JF Mooney, was 12th man against Yorkshire. In came Johan Botha, a non-qualified player allowed in this tournament. He is the professional with Malahide and no relation of Andre. His 23rd birthday came on the eve of the match. He is a South African whose team there is Eastern Province. He bats and bowls. His bowling style is off spin and he was selected in case Kyle McCallan, injured on the English tour, also an off spinner, was not fit. In fact McCallan was fit and Botha also played so the only change from the match against Warwickshire was Botha for Shoukat. Bray again kept wicket.

The pitch was hard and firm with a good coat of grass and very brown in colour. In the Irish innings it certainly helped the Yorkshire seam bowlers who got a lot of lateral movement from it - even if somewhat slowly. For the first time in this competition coloured clothing and a white ball were used. Yorkshire had won all the matches they had played this season up to this point.

Molins and Bray opened to Hoggard and the youthful Bresnan. The first over gave up a wide and a few unsuccessful attempts to cut by Molins. Bresnan's first ball was of yorker length to Bray. He played back, was squared up, and was palpably lbw. 1-1-0. AC Botha and Molins put on 18 but in the seventh over Molins hit over a slower ball from Hoggard with the bat coming down fairly crooked. He was bowled. 19-2-7. Morgan started with a leg glanced four but lost Botha in the ninth over. He got in a good stride forward to Hoggard but the ball nipped back to beat his bat and have him lbw. 24-3-10. Botha had completed 1,000 runs for Ireland when he reached 4. It was his 31st innings. MA Masood was the quickest to this mark in 29 innings. Botha was joint second quickest with TG McVeagh who also got there in 31 innings. With Gillespie joining Morgan nine more runs were added before rain stopped play after 50 minutes and 12.3 overs. Rain persisted and the umpires called off play for the day at 4.30. Morgan was 7 and Gillespie 6 and the total 33 for 3.

The second day was fine but chilly and saw play begin at 10.45, after massive work by the ground staff. Scoring was slow as was the outfield. The fourth wicket pair had to avert a crisis and very well they did it. Hoggard bowled out his 10 overs (2 for 28) with only one four conceded in his analysis. Harvey, medium pace, replaced Bresnan after eight overs from the latter. His second over, the 20th, brought 10 runs and a four for Morgan. The score at its end was 52. Dawson, off spin, replaced Hoggard and bowled 5 overs for 15 runs. After 25 overs the score was 73. Then Vaughan, also off spin, replaced Harvey and bowled two overs to allow Dawson to change ends. White, medium pace, came on at the end at which Dawson had bowled and he bowled out the innings at that end, taking four wickets in the process.

The 30 over score was 88 and, in that over, Gillespie had a lucky chip over mid-wicket. Gillespie treated Dawson's return by coming down the pitch to hit a six over long-on. 100 was up after over 33. Now one hoped for some acceleration and less concentration on the sweep shot. McGrath, medium pace, was on for Dawson and Morgan off drove a four. In the next over (White) Wood injured himself in the outfield preventing a Gillespie boundary. He appeared to spike himself. In the 39th over the stand became worth 100, achieved in 30 overs. Morgan, with an off drive for four off White, brought up this century stand as well as his own 50 off 82 balls. This was his 3rd fifty in his nine international innings, and his second in three innings this year. Harvey replaced McGrath for the 40th over and Gillespie, with a single, brought up his 50 in 109 balls. This was his 14th fifty in 84 innings. The 40 over score was 135, a rate of 3½ per over.

The stand ended in White's next over. Gillespie heaved at a good length ball and was bowled. 137-4-55. The stand of 113 lasted 32 overs and saved the innings after 24 for 3. Gillespie hit a six and a four in 113 balls. Johnston joined Morgan and 23 were put on in four overs (Johnston hit two fours) with 150 coming up in the 44th over. The last ball of the 45th over accounted for Morgan. He hit across the line at White and was bowled. 160-5-59. With Joyce in the 46th over was worth nine runs with Johnston off driving his third four. Joyce fell in the 47th over lobbing White to mid-on. 169-6-2. In the same over, four balls later, Johnston was out. He, too, lobbed the ball which went to short mid wicket. 172-7-24. Johnston's 24 came at a run a ball. J.Botha and McCallan saw the innings out without further loss. In the 19 remaining balls they got 29 runs. They each hit a four. Bresnan came back for the last over in which 12 runs were scored, the most productive over of the innings. Off the last ball Botha hit a huge six over long-on to bring up 201 and left Botha 18 not out in his first innings for Ireland (and as an unqualified player perhaps his last). Yorkshire used no less than seven bowlers. Only Harvey (51 runs) and White (43) bowled their full 10 overs and White was the best wicket taker. The damp slow outfield militated against Ireland. Only 13 boundaries were hit, two sixes and 11 fours and, in the first 30 overs, only two fours were hit.

Yorkshire went in at 1.45. With the sun on the outfield it had got much quicker. Yorkshire, in boundary hits, did not do much better than Ireland. There was one six and 17 fours (one of them all run) as Yorkshire were in the 48th over before winning. Ireland found wicket taking difficult, and the second wicket did not fall until the 36th over at 156. The first three Yorkshire batsmen all scored between 50 and 60 and Ireland's only real consolation in the field was to get Lumb for 15 and McGrath for 1.

Harvey and Vaughan began for Yorkshire. The latter had not batted since February and was opening because Wood had been injured. McCoubrey's direction was poor but both batsmen played carefully and 20 came up in over seven. Right through his innings Vaughan looked as if he was taking a net in the middle. Johnston bowled five overs for 10 runs but Harvey hit two fours in his sixth over and his last in this spell which cost 15 runs and brought up 50 in the 12th over. AC Botha had replaced McCoubrey and Cooke took over in the 14th over in place of Johnston, Harvey hit his first ball to square leg for an all run four. Next ball was on driven for four and a third four was also hit in this over.

Cooke was withdrawn and J Botha was tried with his off spinners. His action was one of whirling arms! Harvey square cut the second ball for four to go to 53 out of 86 from 45 balls with nine fours. McCallan replaced AC Botha (0 for 28 in five over) for the 19th over and his fourth ball dismissed Harvey who scooped it to backward square leg. 91-1-57. The left handed Jaques, another Australian, was next and he got most of the strike (61 balls to 39) in the 65 run stand with Vaughan in 17 overs. Jaques was lucky to survive a run out in the 20th over when a throw to the bowler's wicket missed. Jaques celebrated his luck when he hit J Botha for a six over long on in the 22nd over. This six brought up 104.

McCallan was bowling very economically. Vaughan had a remarkable spell of singles only. From over 13 to over 29 he went from 26 to 41, all in singles. The 25 over score was 112. By over 30 this had increased to 132 with Vaughan at last breaking his singles habit by hitting a four in the 30th over. Cooke retuned for J Botha (0 for 30 in 8 overs). In his second over back Vaughan took two twos off Cooke to get to 51 (in the 2nd over) out of 146 in 86 balls and only three fours. 150 came up in the 35th over after which McCallan had to leave the field to be replaced by JF Mooney. McCallan had bowled 9 overs for 29 and the wicket of Harvey. He had missed Jaques off a hard low return catch. In the 36th over Vaughan pushed Cooke for a straight four. He chopped at the next ball and was caught at the wicket by Bray. 156-2-58. Vaughan faced 92 balls with four fours. Lumb came in and with Jaques added 27 runs in seven overs. Lumb got 15 of these but was out at 183. Johnston had returned for McCallan. In the 43rd over Lumb missed an attempt at a late cut and was bowled. 183-3-15.

McGrath joined Jaques and the last five overs of the match were bowled by McCoubrey and AC Botha. McGrath faced nine balls in two overs, made one run, and was run out in the 46th over when McCoubrey returned to bowl. He played a ball to deep extra cover. Joyce gave chase. McGrath went for two but did not beat Joyce's throw to Bray. 190-4-1. Wood arrived and the last 12 runs came in three overs. With a single in the 46th over Jaques reached 50 at 192 having faced 85 balls. A four by Jaques to wide min on ended the match after 47.4 overs.

Of the five 50's in the match Morgan's 59 earned the Man-of-the-match award decided by the Press corps.

It was a respectable show by Ireland after being 24 for 3. Johnston, J Botha and McCallan bowled 29 overs between them and kept their economy rate below four runs an over.