Yorkshire v Derbyshire T20 Blast Sunday June 4th

Neil Whitaker reports

YORKSHIRE Vikings eased to their third victory in five days as they beat Derbyshire Falcons by seven  wickets with 10 balls  to spare and opener Dawid Malan hit his third consecutive 50 in five days.

Seven days ago when the Vikings lost to Durham many of their fans thought their Blast season was over.  On Tuesday they travel to Leicestershire hoping or expecting to win their third Blast match in seven days.

Malan said: “On Tuesday we  go to Leicester and they are not an easy side to beat because they are focused on the white ball cricket.”


Chasing 167 to win the Vikings openers Adam Lyth and Malan raced to their 50 partnership in five overs as the Falcons used four bowlers. Malan rocked back to George Scrimshaw and pulled him over the long off boundary.  Lyth cut Tom Wood to the point boundary but he tried to sweep the next ball and lost his leg stump.  Malan added: “As openers we are there to attack but in the last couple of matches the others coming have taken the pressure off us.

Will Luxton got too far under a pull off Scrimshaw and Wayne  Madsen at square leg took a comfortable catch.

After adding 48 in six overs with Malan for the third wicket  Weisse pulled Zak Chapppel to Wood on the mid wicket boundary but by  now the result wasn’t in question.  Ben Mike finished the match in style with a straight six off Zaman Khan.

Malan said: “At one stage I thought we would be chasing 180 or 190 but credit goes to the bowlerst’s going alright at the moment, it’s nice to contribute to a win and get us across the line but I would sooner have a much lower strike rate and get the win.  In the last couple of games I think I have earned the right to have a bit of fun. It’s a funny game,you can hit it  in the middle perfectly and it goes for a four then a couple of balls later it gets you out

Last year our players were keen to win games that we messed up but this year we are starting to do the basics right under pressure and we are getting the results, it’s a different mindset.”


For the Falcons Haider Ali hit his highest T20 score for the Falcons as he top scored with 74 and shared in a third wicket partnership of 88 in eight overs with Madsen.


Madsen said: It’s pretty disappointing,  there’s still a long way to go in the competition but we need to get a winning run soon. I thought 170 or 165 would be competitive and put them under pressure but we didn’t get there so they didn’t  have to take too many rusks.  We need to execute our skills better and our bowlers got it wrong.”


After being put into bat on a pitch with a tinge of green the Falcons openers struggled to get the ball away from Weisse until Haider Ali clipped him  off his toes over square leg for the first six of the match.  But they still struggled to lay bat on the ball until the seventh over when Haider Ali hit 12 off Mike, including one six.

The Vikings got an early breakthrough in the fourth over with only 14 on the board. Luis Reece moved across his stumps to ramp Mike but got too far under it and Jafer Chohan took a comfortable catch at short fine leg.

The Falcons lost their second wicket to Chohan’s first ball when Wood reversed swept him to Luxton at short fine leg.


Haider Ali got his left leg out of the way to Chohan and smashed him on to the top tier of Howard stand.  His 50 included three sixes and two fours from 48 balls. He put his left leg down the pitch and pulled Mike flat over the square leg boundary.  With less than two overs remaining he drilled Mike to Weisse at long on.

Madsen drilled Revis for a six into the West stand.  He got deep in the crease to Weisse and eased him over extra cover for a six.  Just as the crowd were expecting the pair to really accelerate two  balls later he flat batted Weisse to Malan at cover.  Ad

Falcons skipper Leus Du Ploy tried to reverse sweep Mike and was bowled.  Matthew McKiernan lost his middle stump to a JordanThompson full toss as he backed away.  Chappell top edged a big swing of Revis to stumper Jonny Tattersall.

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