Malan’s T20 best for Yorkshire leads Tykes to first win for over nine months

More importantly, are you sitting down?

For the first time in 13 games, Yorkshire won.

This remarkable development occurred on Tuesday evening when they beat Nottinghamshire by eight runs.

Even more remarkably, it occurred at Trent Bridge, where Yorkshire had lost six successive T20s since 2015.

Funny old game, as the saying goes.

Not only was this Yorkshire’s first victory of the season at the eighth attempt (excluding the abandoned County Championship game against Gloucestershire at Bristol), but their first in any cricket since they beat Derbyshire in the Royal London Cup at Chesterfield on August 21.

A little over nine months later, the relief among the players, coaches and supporters was palpable as Yorkshire celebrated beneath the Nottingham floodlights.

Finally, their season is up and running and the side has something positive to build on.

Yorkshire’s linchpin was Dawid Malan, who batted through their innings of 182-7 to strike an unbeaten 95, his highest T20 innings for the club.

Malan, who faced 56 balls and hit eight fours and four sixes, was at his dominant best and shared 50 for the third wicket with Shan Masood, the captain who chipped in with 34 from 23 deliveries.

Ben Mike contributed a useful 15 from six balls at the death as Yorkshire got up to a score that felt in the region of par, but by no means foolproof at a fast-scoring ground.

Jack Brooks, the former Yorkshire pace man on loan from Somerset, took 4-51 on his Nottinghamshire debut, but although Alex Hales (53) and Colin Munro (46) kept their side up with the rate for the most part, Yorkshire held their nerve and gave their all with the ball and in the field as the hosts closed on 174-4.

Before a crowd of around 10,000, with the sun struggling to peak through on a mostly overcast evening, Yorkshire showed one change to the side beaten by Durham at Headingley on Sunday.

Will Luxton, the 20-year-old batsman, was handed his T20 debut in place of pace man Matthew Fisher, Yorkshire espying a pitch full of runs.

After reaching 41-0 with few alarms, Yorkshire lost two wickets in the final over of the powerplay to Brooks, a double Championship-winner during his time at Headingley.

Brook’s first over, the fourth of the innings, went for 17 and contained three boundaries, including a six over cover by Adam Lyth.

But after Malan pulled the first ball of Brooks’s next over for six, the pace bowler, who turns 39 next week, took two wickets in four balls - Lyth skying to square-leg and Luxton to mid-wicket.

Masood slog-swept Samit Patel for six as Yorkshire reached 74-2 at halfway, and the Pakistani looked in good touch as he followed up by launching off-spinner Matthew Montgomery for six over square-leg.

But Masood tried one big hit too many and was taken at deep mid-wicket off Montgomery for 34 from 23 deliveries, leaving Yorkshire 91-3 in the 12th.

Samit Patel, another 38-year-old in the home side’s ranks, claimed his 200th T20 wicket for Notts when David Wiese picked out long-off in front of the pavilion.

Malan reached a convincing half-century from 37 deliveries but did have a close shave on 53, lofting off-spinner Matthew Carter to long-on, where a leaping Hales could only palm the ball over the boundary for six in front of the Radcliffe Road Stand.

Hales did take a catch at long-on when Matty Revis skied Brooks towards the end, and Shaheen Shah Afridi got his name in the wickets column when Jordan Thompson lofted to square-leg.

Brooks claimed his fourth scalp in the final over when Mike holed out on the cover boundary, 17 coming off it as Malan finished the innings with a flourish.

Pessimists perhaps felt that Yorkshire’s total was light, but they started the bowling powerplay well as Wiese had the dangerous Joe Clarke skying to wicketkeeper Jonny Tattersall.

But Hales and Munro, the New Zealand left-hander, eased any early nerves and settled into a second-wicket stand that had taken the home team to 78-1 after 10 overs.

Hales reached fifty from 30 balls with eight fours but perished soon afterwards, cutting Wiese to Luxton at backward-point to end the stand at 84.

Notts slipped to 134-3 in the 16th when Munro fell four short of a half-century, picking out Masood at long-on in front of the pavilion off Thompson, having faced 41 balls and hit a six and four fours.

Mike had Montgomery caught at cover as Nottinghamshire’s challenge petered out, Wiese the most successful bowler with 2-32 as Yorkshire head into Thursday’s Roses match at Headingley in better spirits.