Yorkshire v Durham T20 vitality blast North Group at Headingley June 15th

Neil Whitaker reports

YORKSHIRE suffered their second Vitality Blast T20 defeat inside 48 hours and this was a heavy defeat put into bat Yorkshire were dismissed for 128 in 19 overs and Durham knocked off the runs for the loss of four wickets with two overs  to spare at York.

Doing the damage with the ball was Durham’s Matty Potts who took his best figures Vitality Blast T 20 figures  of five for 17 in his four overs, his first five wicket haul in Vitality Blast T20 cricket as Yorkshire were dismissed for 128 in 19 overs.

Potts said: “It was pretty special. Its nice to do well and contribute when I play for Durham.  It was nice to challenge them early on with them being three down.  I thought the pitch looked really well and that it would be a good batting pitch. I normally open the bowling but it was nice to bowl in the middle and its got me five wickets.

But I still think that there is room for improvement.  I love playing for Durham and at the moment it’s really exciting to be at Durham.”

Will Luxton was Potts first victim when he  tried to turn Potts’ first ball to leg  and was leg before.  Without adding to the score,  two  balls later Will  Sutherland fended  Potts off  to Jimmy Neesham at slip.

James Wharton was another of  Potts’  victims  but before he was,he  drilled Callum Parkinson to the long-on boundary for a four.  His end came when he pulled Potts to Graham Clark at deep backward square leg but as Clark’s  momentum was taking him over the boundary line he threw the ball back into play and completed the catch.

Dom Bess had a big swing at Potts and was leg before to one which was hitting leg.  He was soon followed back into hutch by Jafer Chohan who played down the wrong line and was leg before to Nathan Sowter in the next over.

Jordan Thompson edged the Yorkshire towards 100 and he was ninth  leg before to Potts’ leg stump yorker. With Will  O’Rourke they added 27 for the ninth wicket but it was the last wicket partnership of 28 between O’Rourke and Jack White which was the biggest of the Yorkshire innings before White was bowled by Ben Raine for 13 and O’Rourke was unbeaten on 21. O’Rourke pulled Potts for a single to bring up the Yorkshire hundred up to ironic cheers from the crowd.  

Put into bat Yorkshire lost their first wicket at the end of the first over when Dawid  Malan played around a straight ball from Zak Foulkes and was leg before. Jonny Bairstow drove Parkinson to Potts  mid-off who dived forward to take the catch. Parkinson got his second wicket in his next over when Adam  Lyth clipped him to Will  Rhodes at deep mid-wicket.

It was a fourth wicket partnership of 60 in eight overs between two ex-Yorkshire players that got Durham over the line captain Alex Lees and Rhodes.  Potty’s added : “Lees played a real  captain’s knock.  It wasn’t easy at all as the ball was still moving about.”

Lees thumped Bess to the long-off boundary.  In the next over he helped O’Rourke off his hips to the fine leg boundary.  His 50 came from 39 balls with fours.  He hit White straight into the car park for the first six of the match  from a free hit.  By this time some of the crowd had decided it was time to go home.

It was Lees who played the big shots while Rhodes was content to knock the ball around, his best shot ws when he clipped O’Rourke off his legs to the long-on boundary.  

Yorkshire got an early breakthrough when Clark cut White to Malan at point in the third over.  Ollie Robinson made a quick 21 until he reversed swept Jafer Chohan to Will O’Rourke at backward point.

Colin Ackerman and Lees were milking the Yorkshire bowling by running two’s and not hitting boundaries until Ackerman top edged a cut off Bess that was too close to him and Bairstow took the catch.

Jafer Chohan said: “As a team we still have the belief that we can make the quarter finals.   When you lose three wickets in the powerplay it’s going to be a struggle. We knew it was a tough start but we got a few more than we expected.  We had the depth to our batting line-up so when we went three down we still thought that we could still win the match.

It’s always tough to defend a small score because you can’t attack too much so it’s going to be hard work when the batters know they only have a small score to get.”

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