George Hill calls for top‑six steel as Yorkshire chase One-Day Cup response
GEORGE HILL believes Yorkshire must sharpen their killer instinct after a string of promising starts fizzled out at Scarborough on Tuesday.
Yorkshire slipped to defeat in their opening One-Day Cup match, bowled out for 270 in pursuit of Hampshire’s 320-8 at North Marine Road. Five of the top six passed 20 – Hill among them – but none were able to carry the side home.
“We’ve spoken about people in the top six seeing it through and being there at the end,” said Hill ahead of Friday’s second game, away to Glamorgan in Neath. “There were a couple of nice starts, but nobody was there when it mattered.
“We were good in phases, but 50-over cricket is still a long time, and you can’t just be good in phases. Someone in the top six needed to be not out to win that game for us, and unfortunately none of us were – myself included.”
Hill’s 61 from No 5 – his highest one-day score for almost four years – was the cornerstone of the response along with Will Luxton’s 64 and Sam Whiteman’s 44.
Hill faced 68 balls, hit seven fours and a six, and looked set to anchor the innings before slicing a cross-batted stroke off left-arm spinner Andrew Neal to short third-man. It was a dismissal that summed up Yorkshire’s day – batsmen leaving in their prime having looked in good touch.
“It was frustrating to get out like that,” added Hill. “I’d 100 per cent rather get none and win, to be perfectly honest.
“I thought 320 was pretty chaseable on that wicket, with a smaller boundary to one side and the wind going that way. But they bowled well, to be fair, and adapted a little bit quicker than we potentially did.”
Now the competition moves to deepest South Wales, where Yorkshire will chase an immediate response.
They have played at Neath only three times in the past – drawing Championship matches there in 1935 and 1954, and winning a Sunday League fixture by four wickets in 1969.
From Neath, they head straight to Hove for Sunday’s meeting with Sussex, a demanding turnaround that will test both Yorkshire’s resilience and their ability to reset quickly.
Hill is relishing the short tour south.
“We’ve got a massive couple of games coming up and we’re looking for a bit of a bounce-back,” he said. “It’s a long comp – seven more group games – and a lot of cricket still to be played.
“We won’t dwell on the first game too much, but we’ll take the learnings from it and hopefully go well over the weekend. We want to start winning trophies, and although the first game was a setback, there’s a long way to go.”
Yorkshire will hand a debut to Kuldeep Yadav, the Indian left-arm wrist-spinner, who has joined as an overseas player. He is available for the next five One-Day Cup matches and three Championship fixtures in September.
Hill, meanwhile, is grateful to be back on the field after a brief lay-off caused by heart palpitations. The issue surfaced during the recent T20 game against Derbyshire at Chesterfield, but he says he is now feeling much improved.
“It’s been a bit frustrating but it’s nice to be fully fit again, touch wood,” he said. “I’m ok. The heart scans came back fine, which is the main thing, and the doctors aren’t too concerned, so neither am I.
“It was just my heart-rate. It flew through the roof and I got quite light-headed all of a sudden. But, thankfully, it seems to have calmed down now.”
Yorkshire’s supporters will be relieved to hear that. Hill is a key performer across all formats – his bowling has been consistently impressive and his batting continues to develop.
When both disciplines click he is a high-class all-rounder, and his presence is even more important in the One-Day Cup with Matty Revis currently away at The Hundred.