Jonny Tattersall leads way as Yorkshire Vikings end losing T20 run

A penny for Bansil’s thoughts as he stood beside the boundary in front of the pavilion, enjoying the company of former colleagues and friends and looking around a stadium that must have seemed so familiar to him but so different too, with “Clean Slate” branding everywhere and the club unrecognisable from the one to which he gave more than eight years’ service as lead physiotherapist.

That Bansil and others dismissed in the wake of the racism crisis such as Pete Sim, the Worcestershire strength and conditioning coach, immediately found positions back in the game tells you everything you need to know and perhaps one day the full story of these and other events will be able to come out.

In the meantime, the lingering after-effects of the crisis remain omnipresent, overshadowing a season that has been played in a surreal atmosphere at times, with a Yorkshire squad left angered and devastated by the mass departures having shown a great attitude under the circumstances.

It was Bansil’s old club which took the spoils last evening, Yorkshire winning by 23 runs to halt a run of six successive defeats in T20 meetings between the teams discounting two abandonments.

After they were sent into bat beneath cloudy skies (still no sign of summer here or anywhere else), Yorkshire racked up 202-5, Jonny Tattersall playing a little gem of an innings with an unbeaten 48 from 30 balls, Harry Brook chipping in with 40 from 25 and David Willey 34 from 19.

Notts looked out of it at 50-5 in the eighth over but Steven Mullaney and Dan Christian thumped 114 in 65 balls to raise the prospect of a ridiculous heist.

Mullaney hit a T20 career-best 79 from 46 and Christian 56 from 35, but Yorkshire held their nerve with Willey excellent and Dominic Drakes taking 3-31 in a spirited effort, Notts finishing on 179-7.

Considering this was Yorkshire’s fifth T20 home game in 13 days, with another to follow against Lancashire on Wednesday, a crowd of 3,659 represented a decent turnout give the drain on the pocket.

They watched the hosts make a brisk start, 34 coming from the first three overs as Finn Allen swung Jake Ball for successive leg-side sixes into the East Stand before falling leg-before to his next delivery.

Ball knocked down Adam Lyth’s off stump in his next over to leave Yorkshire 43-2, which had become 54-2 by the end of the powerplay. An injection of impetus was needed and the third-wicket pair of Willey and Brook came armed with the necessary syringes, sharing 76 in 37 balls to turn the momentum back Yorkshire’s way.

Willey, fresh from a match-winning 75 not out against Durham, pulled leg-spinner Calvin Harrison for six and then lofted left-arm spinner Samit Patel over wide long-on.

Brook, presumably still on a high after being part of the England squad that won the first Test against New Zealand at Lord’s, even though he did not play, showed his six-hitting power by pulling Patel, slog-sweeping Mullaney and swinging Luke Fletcher over backward square-leg into the West Stand, where the usual motley crew of human life was on garish display.

The third-wicket partners fell in successive overs, Willey lofting Harrison to long-off and Brook bowled by Patel as he tried to run him through third-man.

The scoring had just started to slow but it gradually picked up through Tattersall and Will Fraine, who shared 65 for the fifth wicket in 42 balls, Tattersall contributing 43 to the stand including a six off spinner Matthew Carter over square-leg and another off Patel over long-on.

Fraine pulled Ball to deep mid-wicket after striking 19 from 20 before a slightly lop-sided team innings came to an end, with Yorkshire more than doubling their 54-run powerplay score between overs six and 10, then managing only 26 runs between overs 10 and 15 before ending strongly with 59 off the last five.

Alex Hales could probably chase down a 203-run target off his own bat, so the significance was clear when Willey bowled him through the gate for a golden duck. After Joe Clarke was brilliantly caught down the leg-side by Tattersall, diving full stretch to his left off Drakes, Notts slipped to 14-3 after just 11 balls when Drakes made it two-in-two, bowling Patel off an inside edge.

Ben Duckett skied high to Tattersall; Tom Moores spooned Adil Rashid’s first delivery, a full toss, to short fine-leg; Mullaney swung Jordan Thompson to deep-cover and Christian was bowled around his legs by the deadly Drakes.