Depleted Yorkshire CCC sink to third successive T20 defeat
NO Jonny Bairstow, missing with a calf strain. No Will Sutherland, who has broken a toe. No Jordan Thompson, who still has a side strain. And no George Hill, playing for England Lions.
The portents were not exactly favourable for Yorkshire at Edgbaston and, sure enough, another defeat followed as they lost to Bears by six wickets.
Sent into bat on a gloomy evening, with the Second City stuck beneath overcast skies, Yorkshire scored 164-7, Dawid Malan batting through the innings for 69 from 48 balls with four fours and three sixes.
Yorkshire were going along well at 139-2 in the 15th over but the loss of five wickets for seven runs in 17 balls effectively killed them from that point.
Consequently, what should have been a score in the region of 200 fell significantly short, giving the hosts a target that looked - and proved - eminently achievable, Alex Davies (65) and Tom Latham (44) breaking the back of it with an opening stand of 103 inside 12 overs (Bears’ first hundred stand against Yorkshire in the 20-over format).
Malan, whose side were left bottom of the North Group after three defeats in three, admitted it was a tough one to take.
“Disappointing again,” said the Yorkshire captain. “Without trying to big it up, I feel we're close to being in good positions in games.
“We're either having a little three or four-over spell where we mess it up with the bat, or in the field, and it’s costing us. There's good signs that we're doing a lot of things well; we're just not doing them well enough for long enough, which, when you're playing against good players and good teams, if you take your foot off the gas for three or four overs, they take full advantage of it. This was a good example.”
Both sides fielded spin-heavy line-ups with a used pitch in play for this Friday night game. Bears employed four spinners inside the first eight overs but Yorkshire made a good enough start, advancing to 49-1 by the end of the powerplay.
Will Luxton was the man out, but not before he had treated the crowd to some handsome strokes, not least when contemptuously lofting Dan Mousley’s first delivery for four over mid-off, and then lofting him for six over long-on towards Birmingham city centre.
Luxton was unable to capitalise, though, bowled for 24 from 15 balls as he swung across the line at Danny Briggs.
Malan slog-swept Briggs for six before Yorkshire lost their second wicket with the total on 65 in the eighth over.
Adam Lyth - dropped down to No 3 - miscued a pull off Moeen Ali high to mid-wicket, the experiment not working on this occasion.
Malan and Wharton got the innings back on track, playing some blistering shots at times as they took the total up to 87 at halfway and on to 139 inside 15 when Wharton’s dismissal sparked the collapse.
Having thumped a couple of meaty straight sixes, Wharton perished for 39 from 23 when he skied Jake Lintott to mid-on, ending a stand of 74 with Malan in 43 balls.
It was the first of three wickets in eight deliveries as Matty Revis was caught behind down the leg-side in the same over and Dom Bess caught chipping Moeen to mid-wicket.
Yorkshire’s ignominious slump from 139-2 to 146-7 was complete when Harry Duke was lbw to Briggs and Matt Milnes run-out when he pushed Hasan Ali back up the pitch, was sent back by Malan and run out by the bowler as he tried desperately to regain his ground.
Malan did not see much of the strike in the closing stages, managing just eight runs in the last five-and-a-bit overs after Wharton was out, as he moved to within two of 10,000 career runs in T20 cricket.
The former England man should have fallen for 68 in the final over but Mousley put down a fairly routine chance at long-off off Hasan, leg-spinner Jafer Chohan chipping in with a run-a-ball 11 at the death.
Bears eased to 50-0 at the end of their powerplay, Latham and Davies playing within themselves.
Both then helped themselves to pulled sixes off Revis as the floodlights beamed down, the partnership finally broken when Revis took a comfortable catch on the mid-wicket boundary when Latham tried to loft Bess into the Hollies Stand.
Mousley took a wild swing at Milnes and was well caught by wicketkeeper Duke as he dived to his left, and Bears slipped to 128-3 in the 15th over when Davies top-edged Milnes out to deep mid-wicket, where Revis judged the catch nicely diving forwards.
Moeen skied Milnes to Malan at deep cover, but Sam Hain and Ed Barnard saw the hosts home with an over to spare.