Yorkshire v Leicestershire T20 Blast at Headingley July 5th

Neil Whitaker reports

YORKSHIRE put a foot in the quarter finals  of the Vitality Blast T20 with a 41 run win over the Leicestershire Foxes at Headingley thanks to an unbeaten century from Adam Lyth, four wickets for 25 from Hassan Ali and four wickets for 15 from A.J.Tye.

Lyth  now has the two  highest Yorkshire scores in T20 cricket, he hit 161 against Northamptonshire in 2017.  Lyth charged Josh Hull in the first over, edged a drive and the ball flew over first slip and the stumpers heads to the third man boundary.  Jonny Bairstow finished the over when he edged Hull wide of Ben Cox and short third man for another boundary.

He  pulled Alex Green for a massive six into the East stand and lofted the next ball just over Foxes captain Ben Green on its way to another boundary.  The veteran  hit three consecutive fours off an Alex Green over: the first was a lofted drive to the long-on boundary, the second was a drive to the mid-wicket and the third was a leg glance to the fine leg boundary.

Yorkshire head coach Anthony McGrath said: “The old man Lyth just keeps going, he’s got back to his old style in T20 cricket.  Hopefully we can keep him going for another 10 years.

We followed up a good performance on Friday, same wicket, so we knew that we probably needed another 200. And in the end they were up with the race but we managed to take some wickets.  We owed them one for beating us at Leicester. It was a really good all round performance

I keep saying that to do well in this competition you have to have belief. If  you have match winners throughout your team you only need three of them to stand up.

We’ve got two games left and there is no better place to go to than Emirates Old Trafford.”

Lyth  reached his century when he flat batted Ben Green over long-on for a six.  His ton came from 55 balls with 13 fours and four sixes.  He swept the first ball off the last over from Hull  for a six over square leg. Then edged the next wide of keeper Cox for a four.  That over cost the Foxes 24 runs.

Lyth reached his fifty, which came from 27 balls with eight fours and a six, when he reversed swept Leon Trevaskis to the square leg boundary.  He swept Rehan Ahmed for a six over backward square leg.  He repeated the shot to Ben Green only a little bit squarer but with the same result.

Yorkshire won the toss and elected to bat and captain Bairstow pulled Ben Green to the square leg boundary in consecutive balls bisecting long leg and square leg on both occasions.  He swept Rehan Ahmed for a massive six into the Western terrace.  The next ball he tried reverse sweeping Rehan Ahmed and was leg before.  Rehan Ahmed got his second wicket in his next over when Will Luxton charged him and picked out Ashton Turner on the long-off boundary who caught it despite a bobble.

Moeen Ali got hold off Rehan Ahmed and  put him into the Howard stand but Rehan Ahmed had his revenge with his next ball when Moeen Ali drilled him a little square and picked out Nick Kelly on  the long-on boundary who took a low catch at ankle height.

Matty Revis belted Alex Green over the mid-wicket for  a six.  He mistimed a drive off Josh Davey and picked out Ben Green on the long-off boundary.

In their chase the Foxes made a positive start reaching 50 in four overs.  Rishi Patel hit two sixes of the opening over from Hassan Ali.  He flat batted Fahim Ashraf for consecutive sixes: the first was straight and the second was over mid-wicket. But when he got too far under a pull shot of Tye in the next over the ball went up in the air to Hassan Ali at mid-on.

Without adding to the score in the next over Stevie Eskinazi moved across his stumps to glance Hassan Ali off his legs but missed the ball and was bowled.  Kelly slapped Tye to Fahim Ashraf at short cover and Tye got on an hattrick when he kissed the edge of Ashton Turner’s bat and  Bairstow took the catch. Turner’s  second golden duck in consecutive matches.

Rehan Ahmed added 52 with Cox and remarkable victory looked on the cards. Rehan Ahmed drove Dan Moriarty over long-on for a six. Cox dragged Jafer Chohan from well outside off stump to over the mid-wicket boundary for a six.  He scooped Revis over Bairstow’s head to the third man boundary.  Yorkshire broke the partnership when Rehan Ahmed blasted Revis straight but picked out Tye who took a low diving catch to his left.

Cox underedged a reverse sweep of Jafer Chohan to the third man boundary and edged the next ball to the third man boundary.  He used the long handle to Hassan Ali but Moeen Ali at mid-off.  His partnership with his skipper Ben Green kept the Foxes in the hunt.

Ben Green lofted Revis over mid-off which just cleared Hassan Ali at mid-off.  His downfall came when he skied a drive off Tye and Hassan AIi ran in from long-off to  sliding catch.

Trevaskis clipped Hassan Ali to Luxton running in from mid-wicket.  Alex Green had a big swing at Hassan Ali and was bowled for a golden duck. 

The Foxes assistant coach James Taylor said: “I thought they batted incredibly well on what was a good surface. It took a little bit of spin in those middle overs. It was tough at times to rotate the scoreboard and hit the boundaries when we needed to, especially when we’re chasing nigh-on 210. 

Credit to  Lyth. It was an exceptional innings. They don’t come around too often. He put our bowlers under pressure from the word ‘go’.  We were looking like we could have gone for 190, which would could have definitely chased. But 210 was always going to be a tough ask. We needed somebody to go big, and we didn’t have that. We matched them the whole way through up until the 15th or 16th over and we  were actually seven runs ahead in the 15th over. But it was that massive finish that they got. They got 70 off the last five overs, which tipped the balance in their favour.”

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