Michael Vaughan hit his first one-day century to send Yorkshire cruising into the Benson & Hedges Cup semi-finals at Taunton.

A contest with Somerset that promised much, with five current England players involved, eventually proved one-sided as the Tykes skated to their victory target of 211 with eight wickets and 13.2 overs to spare.

The result never looked in doubt once man-of-the-match Vaughan had won his early battle with Andy Caddick, who finished with the sorry figures of 1-57 from his ten overs.

Vaughan hit 15 boundaries in reaching an elegant century, sharing an unbroken third-wicket stand of 140 with Darren Lehmann, who reached his fifty with the winning hit, and going on to make a chanceless 125 not out.

By the end Somerset looked a bedraggled unit. Yet they had started the match promisingly, despite the early loss of Marcus Trescothick to his England colleague Darren Gough.

Skipper Jamie Cox, who had elected to bat first in glorious sunshine, looked in fine form coming in at number three, hitting two sixes and five fours in his 62.

Cox had added 108 with Peter Bowler for the second wicket when hooking a slow full toss from Lehmann straight to Michael Lumb at long leg.

It proved a turning point in the match. Although Bowler reached a half-century off 91 balls, the rest of Somerset's batting was woefully weak against some tight Yorkshire bowling and fielding.

Darren Gough finished with the excellent figures of 1-18 from his ten overs, while Ryan Sidebottom was also a model of accuracy in taking 2-34 from his ten as the home side slumped from 131-1 to make only 210-7.

Afterwards Somerset coach, Kevin Shine, tipped Yorkshire as likely Cup winners.

"If they play like that, with Darren Gough opening the bowling and Vaughan and Lehmann providing the batting strength I would be surprised if they don't do very well in this competition," Shine said.

"That's probably the best I have ever seen Vaughan play and they will have to have a serious look at him with regards to international one-day cricket if he can play like that. He never looked like he was in trouble and he hit the gaps at will."

Man of the match Vaughan admitted that his one-day record to date has not done him justice.

"I was probably not regarded as a one-day player until recently and rightly so. My record for Yorkshire is not great," Vaughan said.

"I have batted everywhere from one to seven and this year is the first time I have been told that I will open. Once you know what you are going to do it's quite easy to plan. I've tried to be positive in the first 15 overs and go on and get a big score after that.

"If you look to bat a full 50 overs you should score 100. Obviously this was a bit different as everything seemed to hit the middle of the bat. I seemed to score a lot of boundaries and it doesn't always happen that way.

"Ask the Yorkshire lads and they will tell you I do play my shots but there have been certain situations with England, especially when I started, where it was necessary to save the match.

"I know I can play all the shots, it's just picking the right balls. But for England I will bat anywhere. You can't be too picky!"

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