Yorkshire Vikings v Durham T20 Blast at Headingley
Neil Whitaker reports
JAFER Chohan, on his 22nd birthday, took Yorkshire Vikings’ third best Vitality T20 bowling figures off 5/14 in 3.4 overs as Durham were skittled out for 107 in 16.4 overs. The 22 year-old took four wickets for two runs in 10 balls. His devastating spell came in the 15th over when Durham went from 96 for six to 97 for nine. Top scorer Ben Raine, who hit 33, played around Jafer Chohan and was leg before. Jafer Chohan got on an hattrick when Ben Dwarshus played an airy fairy shot to him, edged it and stumper Donavan Ferreira took an easy catch. Nathan Sowter survived the hat trick ball by getting a single. But Jafer Chohan got his third wicket of the over when bowled Michael Jones with a googly. He said: “I didn’t know I had the third best figures for the Vikings in this competition. I’ve always wanted to get more wickets but it hasn’t happened for me until tonight. I am a leg spinner and I am a wicket taker. I feel more confident now and hope now that all batters are wary of me. That’s good for me because it puts pressure on them. I thought that Dom Bess and Dan Morset it up beautifully for me. I want to play Test match cricket and I want to be the best bowler I can in all formats of the game. My father took me to my first game of cricket at Lord’s and saw Shane Warne and that’s what made me want to become a leg spinner.” After winning the toss and deciding to bat Durham lost their first wicket in the second over when captain Alex Lees pushed at Bess but stretched too far and was easily stumped by Ferreira. After driving Moriarty to the cover boundary Ollie Robinson chipped the next ball to Bess at mid-on. Graham Clark, who had a life on seven when he queened out a drive off Bess but Jordan Thompson at cover could only get his fingertips to it as the ball sped to the boundary, drove Ben Cliff high but it went straight to Shan Masood at mid-off. On two, Bas De Leede gave a hard return chance to Moriarty at head height. De Leede hit it with such force that it knocked Moriarty over. In the next over he lost his middle stump to a Thompson yorker. Without adding to the score Colin Ackermann was bowled by Jafer Cohan’s first ball when tried to pull his googly but it kept low. Raine pulled Moriarty over the mid wicket boundary for a six. In the next over he flat batted Bess over the long on boundary for another six to bring up the 50 partnership with Ashton Turner. The partnership was broken when Turner drove Bess straight back to the bowler. Without adding to the score Jafer Chohan went on the rampage. What’s more Jafer Chohan took five wickets with a broken thumb. He broke during pre-season and it hasn’t healed properly yet. He added: “The doctors said I shouldn’t be playing at all but I wanted to play. I tried to avoid fielding the ball and batting.” Adam Lyth clipped Raine off his legs for the first six of the Vikings innings and guided the next ball over the fine leg boundary fir another six. His partner Dawid Malan drove Colin Ackermann over long-on for his first six. The partnership was broken when Lyth smashed Sowter straight back to the spinner who took a one-handed catch diving low to his left. Malan was soon joining Lyth back in the hutch when he pulled De Leede to Turner at short mid-wicket in the next over. After 16 minutes at crease without a boundary and some Vikings fans getting anxious, James Wharton drove Callium Parkinson over the long-on boundary for a boundary and repeated the shot in the next over to Sowter. With his captain Shan Masood, Wharton added for the third wicket until he got too far under a pull off Dwarshus and De Leede coming in from the mid-wicket boundary took the catch. Ferreira won the match when he pulled Parkinson over mid-wicket for a couple, he nearly won it with a six but Turner caught it on the boundary and threw it back but there was nobody near him to catch the rebound. Durham coach Ryan Parkinson said: “We fought ourselves back into the but full credit goes to the young leg spinner, he did brilliantly. But the beauty of this competition is that in less than 24 we are playing again and get the chance put this game behind us and win tomorrow, if we do that we deserve to be in the last eight.” The victory keeps the Vikings hopes of reaching the quarter finals. Jafer Chohan added: “We have lost a couple of games that we should have won. We said that if we won three of our last four games we would reach the quarter finals. In the dressing room we feel confident about going into tomorrow’s game against Lancashire Lightning.”July 12, 2024 2:05 pm