Yorkshire v Derbyshire TBlast at Headingley May 24th

Neil Whitaker reports

YORKSHIRE won their second Vitality Blast T20 in three days as they beat Derbyshire Falcons by two wickets with four balls to spare.  

Taking Yorkshire to victory was the unlikely pair of AJ Tye and Hassan Ali normally used to winning matches with ball and not the bat.  Today they added 56 in four overs to take Yorkshire over the line.

They needed 21 from two overs, Hassan Ali hit a straight six and held the pose, followed by a six over extra cover, 15  came  off that over.  The first ball of the last over from Ben Aitchison was a wide followed by a sliced four through third man and Hassan Ali won the match with a single.

Tye said: “We  needed  21, then he hit a six  and a four, by now  he was switched on. We are  both experienced players so to get nine and  10 an over, we didn’t have to take too many risks.  We still have a lot of games to play and a lot of opposition.  It’s  a good start, but we're not gonna get ahead of ourselves. We’ve just got to keep building and doing what we can do.”

Falcons skipper  Nye Donald said: “We are disappointed and gutted.  I thought the bowlers at the end bowled well in their earlier overs then they suddenly brought them back  into the game. I just think we probably weren't good enough when the bowlers just missed.”

Chasing 195 to win Yorkshire opener Adam Lyth clipped Aitchison off his toes for a six and helped the next ball round the corner for another six.  He wasn’t done with hitting sixes, he hit the first ball he received from Akif Javid  in the next over for a six over fine leg. But the bowler had the last word when Lyth glanced him to Matt  Montgomery at square leg.

In the next over Jonny Bairstow tried to pull Jack Morley but missed the ball and was leg before.  Josh Wharton across his stumps to  Nick Potts and scooped  him but found Morley coming in from square leg boundary.

Moeen Ali smashed Morley over on  boundary and he repeated the shot with the same result to end the over. In between the sixes Will Luxton tried to sweep Morley but played over the ball.

Moeen Ali drove Akif Javed to the extra cover boundary.  In Akif Javed’s next over he  pulled him to the mid-wicket boundary.  He welcomed Potts back into the action by driving him straight into the Howard stand for a six.  He glanced the next ball for a six into the Western terrace to bring up his 50 of 36 balls with five sixes and two fours.  His end came when he sliced Potts to Amrit Basa on the point boundary.

Donald added: “When Moeen Ali was dismissed there was almost a sense of extreme joy, because the real danger man had gone, little, did we think, there'd be two more danger men following him.  We knew how big a wicket Moeen Ali is, he is world class, always has been and always will be.”

On two,  Matty Revis pushed Morley to  mid-off and set off for a single and just beat Montgomery’s underarm throw which hit the stumps.  He swept Morley over the mid-wicket boundary and into the Western terrace.  Later in the over he sliced a drive off Morley and found  Caleb Jewell at backward point.

Montgomery got his only  wicket when George Hill reversed swept his second ball to Morley on the cover boundary.  After hitting Morley for a six over long-off Dom Bess tried repeating the shot but got too far under it and found Andersson coming in from mid-wicket.

Hassan Ali hit three fours off Aitchison's  penultimate over.  Then he  pulled Potts but found Morley on the mid-wicket boundary edge but he parried the over for a six.

The Falcons won the toss and elected to bat.  Opener  Martin  Andersson hit an unbeaten 81, his highest score in the Vitality Blast as the Falcons reached 194 for four in their 20 overs.  He also shared in a record breaking Falcons fourth wicket partnership of 76 against Yorkshire with Montgomery.

With his opening partner Donald, Andersson used the long handles and blazed to 19 in the second over before  Donald toe ended a pull off Hill and the ball  looped to  Tye at mid-on.

When Wayne Madsen backed away and drove Revis to Hassan Ali at mid-off it looked like the Falcons wouldn’t reach 150.  He gave a hard return chance to Jafer Chohan but the bowler could only parry it past the  stumps.

On seven Montgomery smashed Jafer Chohan through the covers but was dropped by Moeen Ali.  He glanced Hill off his legs to the fine leg boundary. The partnership was broken when he  walked across his stumps to Jafer Chohan and was bowled around his legs.

Russ Whiteley, born in Sheffield reminded Yorkshire what he can do with the bat.  He top edged a pull off Tye over Bairstow’s head to the boundary.  Then he thrashed Hassan Ali straight to the long-off boundary. He  flat batted Tye for a six into the Howard stand.  After a dot ball he pulled Tye for another six, this time over fine leg. Memories   of when he hit six sixes in an over to win a Blast match for Worcestershire at Headingley came flooding back. 

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