Alex Hales ensures Yorkshire Vikings’ Trent Bridge hoodoo continues

Not quite the shortest possible game that you can have in T20 – that is five overs per team – but not far off it after rain delayed the start at Trent Bridge last night.

Play had been due to begin at 6.30pm but did not get going until 8.45pm.

When it did, Nottinghamshire showed their skills in the heavily-condensed contest, winning by 10 wickets with 3.2 overs to spare.

After Yorkshire chose to bat before the rain started falling, thus condemning themselves to having to set the target, they managed a fair-to-middling 60-3.

Jordan Thompson top-scored with 28 from 19 balls with two fours and a six, captain Adam Lyth contributing 26 from 18 deliveries with a six and three fours.

In reply, Nottinghamshire romped home as Alex Hales hit 31 not out from just nine deliveries, four of them sixes to go with one four, and Peter Trego an undefeated 29 from 13 balls with six fours.

Defeat meant that Yorkshire must wait to book their place in the quarter-finals for what would be the first time since 2016, with one point enough to do it from their last two fixtures, away to Lancashire on Saturday and away to Derbyshire the next day.

Before a crowd of around 4,000, who were grateful to see any cricket after it had seemed unlikely at one point, Yorkshire lost a wicket to the game’s third ball.

Harry Brook, promoted to open due to the circumstances and the need for quick runs, came down the pitch to his second delivery and was stumped 
off the left-arm spinner Samit Patel.

The former England man conceded just four runs from his opening over and was well supported by off-spinner Matthew Carter, who leaked only eight runs from the second over.

At the end of the powerplay (in this case, after 2.1 overs), Yorkshire were 12-1, which had risen to 31-1 off 3.3 overs – the halfway stage.

After Patel followed up by conceding just three runs from his second over, with bowlers confined to delivering no more than two overs each, Yorkshire were 36-1 with just two overs left.

A disastrous over from Luke Fletcher, which included three wides and three boundaries, saw the arrival of 19 useful runs, with Lyth and Thompson both tucking in.

The second-wicket pair had added 54 when Lyth fell to the opening ball of the final over, skying a Dane Paterson full toss to long-off, where the Nottinghamshire captain Steven Mullaney took the catch.

Thompson departed two balls later when he also skied a full toss into the covers, Patel judging the catch on that occasion.

Matthew Waite finished unbeaten on three from as many balls, while Sam Northeast – who had been carded to open on his T20 debut for the club – did not face a delivery after replacing Thompson.

With New Zealand fast bowler Lockie Ferguson missing with a side strain, but hoping to be back for the last two group games, Yorkshire took to the field after an interval that seemed almost as long as their innings.

A difficult task immediately became hopeless as Dom Bess conceded four boundaries in the first over, three of them to his former Somerset team-mate Trego. Hales got going with a lofted off-side six off Matthew Fisher as Nottinghamshire reached 29-0 after two overs.

Waite conceded two wides and three boundaries as the total rose to 45-0 after three overs, leaving 16 wanted from the last four overs.

As it turned out, the hosts required only four more balls, Hales swatting leg-spinner Josh Poysden – making his first appearance of the season – for three leg-side sixes to win it at a canter.

Victory secured a home quarter-final for Nottinghamshire, the defending champions, who once again look in ominous form.

Should Yorkshire advance, they would be forced to play away from home as the quarter-finals clash with the Headingley Test match between England and India late next month.

For Yorkshire, it was a 14th defeat at Trent Bridge in T20 cricket, their most on any away ground, including eight defeats on their last nine visits.

It was also their fourth defeat on the road out of five this season, to go with a contrastingly outstanding record at Headingley, where they have won six out of six.

Yorkshire’s other scheduled fixture, against Durham at Headingley, was rained off.

Ironically, had this match gone the same way, they would already be through with the one point awarded for a no-result, a thought that will be of scant consolation.