Different season, same old story as Yorkshire CCC exits T20 Blast
THERE’s an old saying that if you haven’t got anything nice to say, don’t say anything, something of a problem, perhaps, when you’ve got 800 words to fill and the subject is Yorkshire in T20 cricket.
But what can you say after performances like this one?
With two games left, Yorkshire are out of the tournament after an eight-wicket defeat to Derbyshire, which made it mathematically impossible for them to reach the quarter-finals.
It was their eighth defeat in 12 matches and kept them second-bottom of the North Group above only Derbyshire themselves, who inflicted the double over them in the space of eight days.
Less than 48 hours after the high of a magnificent Roses win at Old Trafford, where they posted 236-6, their fourth-highest T20 total and looked the business, Yorkshire showed the inconsistency that has blighted them for years.
Sent into bat on a sultry afternoon, with the skies mostly overcast and the atmosphere increasingly subdued as the action unfolded, as if a balloon had been pricked, Yorkshire scored a below-par 151-9, actually a recovery from 17-4 after five overs.
Mohammad Ghazanfar, the Afghan off-spinner, set the tone with a wicket maiden in the opening over, including the prized scalp of Roses centurion Jonny Bairstow, on his way to the remarkable analysis of 4-2-5-2. That was the joint second-most economical four-over return in Blast history, alongside Alfonso Thomas and Danny Briggs, and behind only the 3-4 by Samit Patel (now Derbyshire’s captain) for Nottinghamshire against Worcestershire at Trent Bridge four years ago.
Only a maiden T20 fifty from Dom Bess averted absolute disaster, the all-rounder top-scoring with 53 on an afternoon when Derbyshire pace bowler Ben Aitchison took 5-29, his maiden T20 five-fer.
Then it was over to Aneurin Donald, destroyer of Yorkshire at Chesterfield last week, the opener following his record-equalling 13-ball fifty on that occasion with one brought up from a comparatively pedestrian 24 deliveries this time, Donald top-scoring with 54 as the visitors prevailed with 20 balls left.
After Yorkshire lost Bairstow to the fifth ball of the match, bowled making room to hit to the offside, they lost their second wicket to the tenth delivery when Will Luxton flashed a drive at Aitchison and was brilliantly caught by a diving Caleb Jewell in the gully.
Dawid Malan, the Yorkshire captain, who hit four successive half-centuries in the competition’s early stages, recorded his fourth single-figure score in six innings when he fell to the first ball of the third over, lofting Aitchison to short fine-leg.
When James Wharton chipped Ghazanfar to cover from the final ball of the fifth over, Yorkshire were 17-4, which had become 28-4 by the end of a powerplay that would have been worse for the hosts had Abdullah Shafique not been dropped by Zak Chappell running back from mid-on off Aitchison three balls after Malan was out.
Shafique, who had two at the time, was dropped again on 20, Pat Brown the culprit as he ran round at deep mid-wicket off Samit Patel, the ball trickling away to the boundary for good measure. That would have left Yorkshire 40-5 in the ninth over but it was third time unlucky for Shafique when, in the next over, he miscued a pull off Chappell to Harry Came at mid-on, departing for 26 from 22 balls as the hosts slipped to 53-5.
That a stand or two was sorely needed was clear, and Dom Bess and Will Sutherland at least gave hope with a sixth-wicket partnership of 44 from 33 balls. Bess pulled Brown for the first six of the contest, then Sutherland supplied the second when he lofted Patel towards the pavilion, but the Australian was another caught on the pull when he launched Chappell to deep mid-wicket.
Jordan Thompson walked out and clubbed Chappell for a straight six, then pulled him for four, Bess lofting his second six when Brown was deposited over mid-wicket. Moments later, Bess went to his fifty from 36 balls before Thompson threw the bat at Aitchison and was caught behind, ending a stand of 34 from 18.
Bess fell to the next ball he faced, pulling Aitchison to Brown at deep mid-wicket, then Jafer Chohan was caught in the gully for a golden duck to give Aitchison his third wicket in four balls and his fifth of the innings. Matt Milnes struck three boundaries in the last over from Chappell, which cost 16, emphasising the below-par nature of Yorkshire’s effort.
Donald struck nine fours and a six in reaching his fifty, the visitors 71-0 by the end of their powerplay. Dan Moriarty, the left-arm spinner, eventually got rid of Donald when he came down the track and sliced to point over-reaching for the ball, ending an opening stand of 78 with Jewell, who had been dropped moments earlier at deep mid-wicket by Luxton off Chohan.
Came pulled Moriarty down Shafique’s throat at deep mid-wicket to leave the visitors 84-2 in the 10th, Moriarty finishing with a respectable 2-26, but Wayne Madsen (51 from 28) and Came (41 from 34) added an unbroken 73, Madsen reaching his fifty with a match-winning six off Chohan.