Wonderful Wharton leads Yorkshire to fifth straight victory

He is unlikely to be absent from it any time soon after a breakthrough innings at Headingley last night.

The 22-year-old right-hander, who hails from Huddersfield, scored a magnificent, unbeaten 111 to power Yorkshire to their fifth successive North Group win.

Wharton faced 56 balls and hit 16 of them to the boundary and three over the rope entirely, achieving only Yorkshire’s eighth hundred in the format and their fourth-highest individual score.

What a performance it was by a man making only his fourth T20 appearance, and his second in this year’s tournament, a man whose previous best was 26 against Leicestershire three days earlier.

Wharton had only one half-century to his name for the Yorkshire first-team full-stop - 52 against Leicestershire at Headingley in the opening County Championship game of this season.

This raised the bar for someone who has worked his way up through the ranks but surprised no one aware of his formidable ability.

In partnership with Dawid Malan, who made 79 from 48 balls with nine fours and four sixes, and with whom he shared a Yorkshire T20 record stand of 159 from 79 balls, Wharton helped Yorkshire post 224-4, Jordan Thompson then returning 4-34 as Worcestershire reached 198-6 to lose by 26 runs.

"I’m obviously buzzing,” said Wharton, whose parents and girlfriend were among the crowd. “Tonight was my night, and I just wanted to do my best for the lads.

"It really helped to have ‘Mala’ at the other end, talking me through it. His key message was ‘stay in the moment’, and batting with him really helped.”

It had been a glorious night for cricket in Leeds, the sky a sweep of unbroken blue and a good-sized crowd basking in sunshine.

Shan Masood won the toss for the eighth time in nine attempts since joining Yorkshire, and after the early loss of Adam Lyth, who fetched an off-break from outside off stump and picked out mid-wicket, Wharton and Malan set about their work.

Wharton might have been caught twice in the fourth over, bowled by Pat Brown, who watched in dismay as Jack Haynes allowed a skier at cover to land safely to ground and then Brett D’Oliveira, the captain, drop a pull to mid-on. Wharton had been trying a repeat of the previous ball, which he flat-batted for six towards The Howard Stand.

He rode his luck at times, with a couple of top-edges sailing over the wicketkeeper’s head, but for the most part played with flair and panache, racing to a 20-ball half-century that included the sweetest six - Adam Finch pulled savagely and almost out of the stadium over the West Stand.

At the other end, Malan was as imperious as he has been all tournament, the left-hander reaching his fourth half-century in five innings from 33 balls with eight fours and a six. That six, off the left-arm spinner Mitchell Santner, flew over Brown on the mid-wicket boundary and into the West Stand, one ball after Brown had made a hash of catching Malan when he came in too far off the same boundary, the ball looping fractionally over his head and bouncing for four.

Yorkshire were 108-1 at halfway, Malan ensuring there was no let-up in the pace as he launched Santner for another six over mid-wicket before depositing D’Oliveira and Bracewell over the straight boundary. Bracewell got him finally, Malan picking out deep cover to leave Yorkshire 170-2 at the end of the 15th over, his stand with Wharton beating the club’s previous T20 best of 150 (also for the second wicket) between Lyth and David Willey at Northants in 2018.

Yorkshire slipped to 175-3 when Masood found cover, Wharton and David Wiese then sharing 47 inside four overs before Wiese was run out off the penultimate ball.

Wharton was cheered to the echo as he left the field, just as he had been when reaching his century from 51 balls with his third six - an outrageous ramp off Brown towards The Howard Stand – “I didn’t want anyone to think I was playing for my hundred”.

Worcestershire’s reply was in immediate distress - literally, in fact - when Bracewell fell in a heap after playing Dom Bess into the offside, setting off for a run but damaging his foot in the process.

The stricken New Zealander was helped from the field, and the visitors lost their first wicket in the next over when Haynes sliced Wiese to mid-on. Adam Hose top-edged a leg-side flick off Thompson to the wicketkeeper, and after D’Oliveira and Santner added 59 for the third, both fell in quick succession to leave Worcestershire 109-4 in the 12th, D’Oliveira pulling Wiese to deep mid-wicket and Santner lofting Thompson to long-on.

Cox and Kashif Ali ensured there was no timid surrender from the visitors, sharing 81 off 42 balls before Cox cut Thompson to deep point, Thompson striking again next ball when Ed Pollock lofted a full toss to deep backward-square.

Kashif finished unbeaten on 48, but it was Wharton’s night as Yorkshire march on.