This golden duck business is becoming a worrying habit for Andrew Flintoff. It had been six weeks since the England all-rounder had played for Lancashire's first team, ruled out by a side strain, but his luck with the bat has not improved in the meantime. Last night, in his latest comeback for his county, Flintoff was leg-before to the first ball he received from Tim Bresnan, the Yorkshire medium-pace bowler.

In his most recent first-team game, a championship match against Durham in early May, Flintoff had picked up a pair, so this was his third duck in a row, two of them to his first ball. Add to that another first-ball duck in his previous championship appearance against Somerset and Flintoff has had a thoroughly miserable season with the bat so far.

Playing as a batsman only last night as Lancashire replied to Yorkshire's 135 for eight, Flintoff came in at No 3 in the third over, greeted by a throaty roar from a full house of 17,000. To a length ball from Bresnan, he propped half-forward and pushed around his pad, looking to ease the ball into the leg side. He was hit on the knee-roll and Barry Dudleston, the umpire, judged that the ball would have gone on to hit the stumps.

At least Flintoff could see the funny side to yet another duck, chuckling all the way back to the dugout in front of the Old Trafford pavilion. He flung his gloves down and slumped ruefully into a chair by the dugout, where he stayed for the remainder of the Lancashire innings. In eight innings this season, he has now been dismissed for a duck four times. He did make 56 for Lancashire's second team earlier this week, but that is scant consolation.

For all the attention generated by his lack of runs, his form with the ball is likely to influence whether he is recalled by England for the first Test match against South Africa, which begins at Lord's on July 10. Before then, he has only one championship match to prove his fitness, against Sussex starting a week tomorrow.

“I bowled four or five overs in the warm-up at around 80 per cent,” he said in a television interview before the game last night. “I should be able to play a full part against Sussex and hopefully I'll be bowling [in a match] before then.” Lancashire have four more Twenty20 Cup matches in the next week.

Flintoff was not the only famous name to be dismissed for a duck last night, as Michael Vaughan chopped his third ball from Sajid Mahmood onto his middle stump. Yorkshire boosted their chances of reaching the quarter-finals when Bresnan bowled a superb final over, from which 12 were needed. Gareth Cross was unable to hit a six from the last ball, completing an unhappy comeback for Flintoff.

The match between Somerset and Gloucestershire was abandoned without a ball being bowled at Taunton last night after heavy rain made play impossible.

Scoreboard

Yorkshire
A W Gale run out 0
†G L Brophy c Cross b Keedy 44
M P Vaughan b Mahmood 0
A McGrath c Marshall b Croft 25
J A Rudolph c Flintoff b Marshall 23
S M Guy c Law b Marshal l7
T T Bresnan not out 13
A U Rashid c Cross b Chapple 1
R M Pyrah c Du Plessis b Marshall 8
*D Gough not out 1
Extras (lb 7, w 4, nb 2) 13

Total (8 wkts, 20 overs) 135

M J Hoggard did not bat.

Fall of wickets: 1-0, 2-8, 3-67, 4-85, 5-104, 6-108, 7-111, 8-130.

Bowling: Chapple 4-0-22-1; Mahmood 3-0-22-1; Hogg 4-0-29-0; Croft 3-0-25-1; Keedy 3-0-19-1; Marshall 3-0-11-3.

Lancashire
M B Loye c Brophy b Hoggard 17
*S G Law c Guy b Bresnan 1
A Flintoff lbw b Bresnan 0
F du Plessis c McGrath b Gough 42
S J Croft c Bresnan b Rashid 29
†G D Cross not out 11
K W Hogg b Gough 22
G Chapple not out 4
Extras (b 1, lb 3, w 1) 5

Total (6 wkts, 20 overs) 131

S J Marshall, S I Mahmood and G Keedy did not bat.

Fall of wickets: 1-11, 2-12, 3-20, 4-88, 5-94, 6-120.

Bowling: Bresnan 4-0-12-2; Hoggard 4-0-31-1; Pyrah 3-0-16-0; Rashid 4-0-25-1; Gough 4-0-31-2; Vaughan 1-0-12-0.

Umpires: B Dudleston and V A Holder.