T20 Vitality Blast Yorkshire v Worcestershire May 25th

Neil Whitaker reports from Headingley

HARRY Brook’s fifth  Vitality Blast T20 50 saw the Vikings get their T20 season off to a winning start by beating Worcestershire Rapids by seven wickets with 11 balls to spare.


When Brook,  who hit an unbeaten 60,  joined Joe Root the Vikings had lost three quick wickets and still needed another 85 to win in nine overs but Brook and Root saw them home without looking in any trouble.


Brook tongue in cheek said: “I just let Root do what he wants to do.”  Seriously he added: “We  never thought about the ran rate, we just wanted to get the first win under our belt. We were going to bowl because we bat all the way down

The wickets I have played on have been better and I’ve enjoyed batting on them and long may it continue.”



Brook drove Ed  Barnard through extra cover on to the top deck of the north east stand. Then he uppercut  Pat Brown over the third man boundary for a six.   He smacked  Charlie Morris to short cover but the fielder couldn’t hold on to the neck ball he reached his fifty from 23 balls.


Root guided Dillon Pennington through the vacant slip area for a four.  He reversed slogged Brown to the third man boundary to take the Vikings needing 10 to win.  The only false shot in Root’s 35 was when he got an inside edged to Morris that evaded stumper Ben Cox and ran to the fine leg boundary.



In their reply to 173 the Vikings made a brisk start thanks to a massive six from Dawid  Malan off Pennington that bounced on the roof of the scoreboard before going out of the ground.  Not to be outdone, Adam Lyth clipped Pennington off his legs to the fine leg boundary.  In their powerplay the Vikings reached 59 without loss.


Then the Vikings innings started to stumble.  Lyth on 34 pulled Barnard to Ed Pollock on the mid wicket boundary who surprised everyone by catching it but couldn’t hold on to it as he parried the ball over the line. But the cost wasn’t expensive as Lyth tried to smash Barnard’s next ball to the cover boundary but found Gareth  Roderick. Six balls later Tom  Kohler-Cadmore missed a straight ball from  Brett D’Oliveria and was bowled.  Malan clipped Morris and Barnard on the mid wicket boundary took a good catch diving to his left.


The Rapids won the toss and decided to bat but lost their first wicket in the second over when the left hander  Pollock tried to slog the off spinner Dom  Bess but was bowled.


Jack Haynes top scored for the Rapids who at the halfway  stage looked set to reach  200 but they were pegged back by Jordan Thompson who took three for 35 in his four overs after his first over cost him 22  runs with two sixes and two fours,



Haynes drove Bess over extra cover for the first six of the match.Haynes hit Shadab Khan  for another big six over long on into the old pavilion and he brought up his fifty with a six over square leg. His fifty came from 27 balls including five sixes.  He tried to add to his six count by  hitting Matt  Revis over mid wicket but didn’t get enough power on it for the long boundary and Thompson took a running catch.


Haynes said: “We had a decent amount of momentum going into the last four or five overs of our innings, so it would have been nice to carry it on. But a couple of poor options from a few of us, myself included, and we fell 30 or 40 short. It was nice to score runs and contribute to the team, but I’m gutted to lose. 


Yorkshire are a really strong side, and 80 percent of that game we were fantastic. I don’t think we’re far away at all from our best cricket. Hopefully we can show that at Nottingham on Friday.”


Jake Libby was another Rapids batter who got into the act of hitting a Vikings bowler for a six through extra cover.  He looked like he was going to 40 plus but only managed 25. He backed away and smashed the ball back to Matt Revis but the ball didn’t stick.  He tried to repeat the shot to Thompson but found Lyth at cover. But after the loss of Libby the Rapid’s innings fell apart the big shots as well as the runs dried up.



Cox clipped Thompson off legs but found Brook on the long on boundary.  Roderick flat batted Harris Rauf, the bat hit the stumps at the bowlers end but didn’t dislodge both bails so Rauf walked a couple of yards and three the stumps down.


Barnard scooped a low full toss from Rauf for a six over the keepers head but played on to the last ball of the over.


Jos Baker tried to drive Thompson but found Brook on the long on boundary.   Brook said: “Thompson was unbelievable after his start and I love fielding at long on to him.”

Scorecard