Yorkshire Vikings v Birmingham Bears(Warwickshire) at Headingley June 5th T20 Blast

Neil Whitaker reports

BIRMINGHAM Bears stretched their unbeaten run to five games as they beat Yorkshire Vikings by four runs at Headingley.

The Vikings needed 11 to win from the last over from George Garton. But the Vikings only got  four runs off the bat and two leg byes.  Garton  said: “It was a good advert for T20 cricket and everyone knows that Headingley is a fast scoring ground.  I thought that we had an above par score but we kept ourselves in it but they were In the driving seat until the last two overs.

The 19th over is the crucial over  and I thought Dan Mousley bowled a brilliant over and gave me something to defend.  I do a lot of preparation in training to bowl an over like I did, I was trying to vary my line and lengths.”

Sam Hain hit an unbeaten 98  as the Bears made 214 for seven in their 20 overs.  His  98 included eight sixes and five fours.   Hain pulled a short ball from George  Hill into the East stand  for a  big six to take him two short off his fifty then  punched Hill to long off boundary to bring up his 50 from 34 balls with three sixes and three fours.  He hit 22 off Conner  McKerr’s third over with three sixes and a four.  

Hain chipped Jordan Thompson’s first ball off toes into the Western Terrace for a massive six and  launched Thompson off his legs  into the Western Terrace for another six. He  cut the next ball to the point boundary he effortlessly hit Hill straight for yet another six.  Hain missed out on a century because he couldn’t get on strike but Garton and Zak Foakes did the big hitting.  

Garton hit six of the first two balls of the final over from  McKerr then  top edged a pull off McKerr and stumper Donavan  Ferreira took an easy catch. Foukes top edged the next for a six that landed on the roof of the Howard stand.  He had a big swing at the next ball, missed it, set off for a run and was easily run out by Ferreira.

Garton added: “Hain was brilliant, he assessed the situation well and if he feels that it’s a good pitch he will score very quickly and every time it has worked.”

Electing to bat after winning the toss the Bears lost their first wicket to the first ball of the match when Dan Moriarty bowled Ed Barnard  with his arm ball.

Mousley took a couple down the pitch to Matt Revis and hosted him over the long-on boundary for a big six.  A couple of balls later Alex Davies planted him into the  Western terrace for a bigger six and then  flat batted him for a straight four.

Mousley hooked McKerr for a six over fine leg but that was that from Mousley, he backed away  from McKerr, got a bottom edge and dragged it back on to his stumps.

Davies hit consecutive sixes off Moriarty over square leg.  He  tried to work Thompson off his legs but missed the ball and was hit on his boot.

Moriarty got his second wicket when Jacob Bethel tried to drill him over mid-wicket but got too far under it and gave Hill a simple catch on the mid-wicket boundary.

Chris Benjamin tried to reverse ramp Thompson but missed the ball and was  bowled.

After bowling a couple of wides Kiwi Foulkes got a wicket when Adam Lyth edged a big swing and Davies took the catch, which was a good effort for the Bears captain  because he had injured a finger in the first over. Sadly he had to leave the field after that ball and was replaced behind the stumps by  Benjamin and Danny Briggs took over the captaincy.

Dawid Malan hit two fours off Craig Miles’ first over and James Wharton finished the over with a drive to the extra cover boundary.  Wharton pulled a short  ball from Foulkes on the move over the fine leg boundary. After hitting a quick 29 Wharton tried sweep Briggs over mid-wicket but found Mousley on the boundary edge,

On six, Hill had a life when he top edged Garton and substitute keeper Benjamin ran nearly to the square leg umpire but dropped the catch as he fell to the ground. But it wasn’t an expensive miss. In the next over he tried to sweep Briggs and was bowled.

Malan and Ferreira added 57 in six overs and looked to be taking the Vikings over the line until Malan hit a full toss from Briggs to Bethell on the cover boundary.

Ferreira took a couple of paces down the pitch to Briggs and hit for a straight six and flat batted Miles over the extra cover boundary for another six.  In the next over he cue ended Lintott straight into the Howard stand for another six and  clipped Lintott off his toes for a six over mid-wicket. He  smashed the next ball over long-on to bring up his 50 from 26 balls.

With 18 needed from 12 balls he drove  Mousley aiming for another boundary but found Miles who dove to his left to take the catch.  Donavan said: “It was nice to score some runs but when you don’t it doesn’t count for anything if you lose  but that’s sport.  It  just gives you confidence to take into the next game. I thought that 214 was going to be tough to chase. Being the overseas pro there’s pressure on me to do as much as possible but tonight I feel like I’ve let the team down.

I think they got 20 too many, as a collective we weren’t in it, we have to learn from this game and we can get better. We have to look at things that we could have done better. I thought it was a good wicket but small margins didn’t go our way.”

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