Shan Masood has no room for sentiment as Derbyshire visit Yorkshire CCC in Vitality Blast

SHAN MASOOD intends to put sentiment to one side as he looks to lead Yorkshire to a third successive T20 Blast win against his former club Derbyshire.
By Chris Waters
Published 3rd Jun 2023, 06:00 BST

The Yorkshire captain is looking forward to seeing his former team-mates when the sides lock horns at Headingley on Sunday.

But Masood’s sole priority is building on the victories over Lancashire and Nottinghamshire that have reignited Yorkshire’s challenge after they started their Blast campaign with three straight defeats.

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“It is not a fixture that I want to get too emotional about,” said Masood, who had a magnificent season at Derbyshire last year, scoring more than 1,800 runs in all cricket at an average over 60.

Yorkshire's Shan Masood and Matthew Revis, put on the runs against Lancashire. Can they double up against Derbyshire on Sunday (Picture: Jonathan Gawthorpe)Yorkshire's Shan Masood and Matthew Revis, put on the runs against Lancashire. Can they double up against Derbyshire on Sunday (Picture: Jonathan Gawthorpe)
Yorkshire's Shan Masood and Matthew Revis, put on the runs against Lancashire. Can they double up against Derbyshire on Sunday (Picture: Jonathan Gawthorpe)

“At the end of the day, it’ll be nice to see everyone again, nice to have a chat before and after the game, but I think when it’s game-time, I’m just going to be professional and hopefully the boys can pull off another good result.

“It was special at Derbyshire, I owe a lot to them, to Mickey Arthur (head of cricket), and it was an amazing dressing room environment there.

“It was probably one of the toughest decisions I had to make to leave them, in fact.”

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Yorkshire will be favourites to continue a winning sequence that ended a nine-month run without a victory.

Yorkshire's Ben Mike celebrates taking the wicket of Lancashire's Phil Salt as the Vikings got their second win of the season on Thursday (Picture: Jonathan Gawthorpe)Yorkshire's Ben Mike celebrates taking the wicket of Lancashire's Phil Salt as the Vikings got their second win of the season on Thursday (Picture: Jonathan Gawthorpe)
Yorkshire's Ben Mike celebrates taking the wicket of Lancashire's Phil Salt as the Vikings got their second win of the season on Thursday (Picture: Jonathan Gawthorpe)

One would have got long odds on them beating Nottinghamshire and Lancashire, two traditionally strong T20 teams, after they started the tournament with defeats to Birmingham, Worcestershire and Durham, but the 20-over format is a capricious beast and there is little accounting for the change in fortunes.

“It just goes to show that you’re never down and out,” added Masood. “There’s always a way to get things back on track.

“I hold on to the quote that I said before the Notts game that it would be nice to start our season off with wins against Notts and Lancs.

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“We’ve done that, and that shows the quality we’ve got in the side; it shows we’ve got something within our ranks.

“Now we want to carry it on against Derbyshire and it is going to be ‘on the day’. Whoever plays the better cricket, whoever makes the right decisions, whoever makes the fewer mistakes is going to come out on top. Hopefully that will be us.”

Related topics:DerbyshireYorkshireYorkshire CCCLancashireNottinghamshireHeadingley