Disappointment for Yorkshire CCC in the Vitality Blast

Doubtless it only goes to show that women really are better at doing more than one thing at the same time, as the old wisdom says, but as Northamptonshire beat Australia here by two wickets in Birmingham (joke), tribute perhaps had to be paid, first and foremost, to the 3,200 spectators who put county before country to turn up here, whether through a lack of subscription television, a transistor radio and/or a rather fetching kind of madness.

On an initially cloudy evening in Leeds that gave way to pleasant sunshine, rendering the floodlights redundant as they beamed through the brightness, those hardy souls saw Northamptonshire beat Yorkshire by 78 runs.

After choosing to bat, Northamptonshire made 180-6, Justin Broad top-scoring with 47 not out and leg-spinner Jafer Chohan outstanding for 1-13 from four overs, Yorkshire subsiding to 102 all-out in 15.2 overs as seamer Tom Taylor took a career-best 5-28.

Defeat saw Yorkshire drop out of the top-four qualifying places into fifth, but they are only two points off top spot with three group games left, the next at home to Birmingham on Thursday.

This was an important match for both teams for different reasons.

Yorkshire went into it on the back of a record T20 defeat by a runs margin, having lost by 144 against Derbyshire at Chesterfield, and therefore looking for a response, while Northamptonshire realistically had to win to maintain hopes of rising from second-bottom and into the top-four.

The boundary was short to the West Stand side of the ground, making it an obvious target for free-swinging bats, and Ricardo Vasconcelos, the Northamptonshire opener, wasted little time in finding it, twice pulling David Wiese for four and, with the opening blow, disturbing a flock of pigeons.

After being dropped by a leaping James Wharton at point with the total on 47, a tough chance off Jordan Thompson, Vasconcelos pulled the same bowler for six into the West Stand which, in happy contrast to last Friday’s game here, provided no pitch invaders this time.

From Thompson’s next ball, the penultimate one of the powerplay, Vasconcelos skied to cover as the visitors slipped to 55-1.

Emilio Gay, the other opener, hit Matty Revis for six over mid-wicket before the introduction of Chohan pegged back the run-rate.

Wheeling away from the Kirkstall Lane end, the 20-year-old, who did not bowl at Chesterfield, bagged a deserved wicket, the prized one of Chris Lynn, who top-edged a sweep to backward square-leg. Dom Bess, the off-spinner, was not quite as economical but between them the two Yorkshire spinners conceded just 45 runs from eight overs.

Gay and Saif Zaib fell in quick succession to leave the score 94-4 in the 13th, the former lofting Thompson to mid-off to depart for 40 from 25, the latter run-out by Masood from backward-point.

The visitors needed a partnership to reach a competitive score and got one through Broad and David Willey, the Northamptonshire captain and former Yorkshire skipper, who added 50 off 27 balls, Willey displaying trademark power when pulling Revis for six.

Willey was finally run-out by a throw from the deep, but Andrew Tye clubbed a couple of leg-sides sixes to keep the momentum going before Thompson ran him out off his own bowling.

Thompson was the most successful bowler with 2-42, but Yorkshire’s seamers were expensive in contrast to their spinners.

Facing a tough but by no means impossible target, Yorkshire got off to a terrible start. Adam Lyth skied Ben Sanderson, the former Yorkshire player, to Vasconcelos running back from slip, before Willey struck twice in consecutive overs to leave the hosts 15-3.

First, Wharton threw the bat outside off stump and was caught behind, and then Masood was bowled making room to hit through the offside.

When Revis was bowled by Sanderson, having just hit the first boundary off the bat in the final over of the powerplay, Yorkshire were in the mire at 22-4. That became 49-6 in the ninth when Taylor took two wickets with successive balls, Jonny Tattersall top-edging to third man and Wiese bowled for a golden duck.

Taylor later returned to take another two wickets in five deliveries, bowling Ben Mike and opener Dawid Malan, the latter having been starved of the strike to the extent that he had faced only 24 balls when he fell for 34 to the penultimate one of the 12th over.

Taylor bagged his fifth when Thompson lofted to mid-off, and Tye finished things off by bowling Chohan, a disappointing night here in Birmingham, I mean Northampton, I mean Leeds.