Tom Kohler-Cadmore blasts Yorkshire Vikings to T20 victory

The nearby River Severn glinted like polished diamond beneath the strong summer sun.

En route to the ground, the bronze statue of Sir Edward Elgar, the city’s greatest son, baked in the heat as it beckoned passers-by.

And the famous cathedral stood mighty and magnificent, towering above New Road in a perfect fusion of quintessential Englishness.

On the field?

Well, this is T20 dear, not a format of cricket that evokes the transcendent.

But an entertaining contest was witnessed as Yorkshire beat Worcestershire by five wickets, thereby keeping in the mix for a quarter-final place.

On as green a pitch as the locals could remember (not even Elgar, perhaps, would have seen one quite so viridescent), Worcestershire stumbled to 150-5 after being sent into bat, a total that felt significantly below-par.

Dom Bess led the bowling effort with 3-15, career-best figures in the T20 format, as he maintained his impressive form this season, and Yorkshire chased down the runs faster than you could say The Dream of Gerontius, winning with 5.2 overs to spare.

Tom Kohler-Cadmore led the way for his soon-to-be-former club against his former club, the Somerset-bound batsman striking an unbeaten 46 from 30 balls with three fours and three sixes, and stand-in captain Harry Brook, released from Test duty at Clean Slate HQ, chipped in with 35 from 22.

Adam Lyth weighed in with 29 from 11.

Worcestershire looked every inch a side for whom this was a ninth defeat in 11 games, the hosts anchored to the foot of the North Group and, on this evidence, sinking without trace.

It would have been even worse for them but for an unbroken sixth-wicket stand of 73 in 46 balls between Kashif Ali, a 24-year-old making only his third T20 appearance, and Gareth Roderick, who scored 46 and 31 respectively.

Kashif played some handsome strokes and looked a real find, his innings containing a brace of sixes off Matthew Waite – one pulled in the direction of the electronic scoreboard opposite the pavilion, the other launched over long-on into the Basil D’Oliveira Stand.

Waite conceded 24 from his final over, which included a leg-bye, to put a somewhat misleading hue on his work. Earlier he was excellent, returning 3-0-16-1 in a powerplay in which Worcestershire reached 38-2.

The hosts struck 60 off the final five overs to at least give themselves something to bowl out, with Yorkshire’s bowling and fielding collectively impressive.

But it was another tough night for Shadab Khan, the Pakistan all-rounder, who sent down four wicket-less overs for 34, dropped Kashif on 12 at mid-wicket off Bess – a sharp opportunity but one that should have been taken – and scored six from seven balls.

The match had started with a huge red herring, Ed Pollock lofting the first ball over square-leg for six off Matthew Revis.

Pollock fell in the second over when uppercutting Waite to Revis at third-man, Worcestershire slipping to 15-2 in the third when Revis had Brett D’Oliveira held behind off a half-hearted drive.

Jake Libby and Colin Munro injected impetus with a third-wicket stand of 44 in 38, ended when Libby was bowled playing over a full one from Bess, the off-spinner striking again when Munro – moments after mullering Shadab for six into the Basil D’Oliveira Stand – was taken on the deep mid-wicket boundary trying something similar.

Bess took his third wicket when Ed Barnard was leg-before swinging across the line.

In front of around 2,000 spectators, Yorkshire’s reply was fast out of the blocks, Lyth setting the tone with two sixes in Barnard’s first over – the first over long-off, the second pulled.

Finn Allen helped Mitchell Stanley over the backward-square boundary towards the on-site hotel, but then skied him to square-leg, his innings fizzling out just when it threatened to catch fire.

Not that it mattered. Lyth and Kohler-Cadmore had taken the score to 64 in the fifth over by the time Lyth lofted Pat Brown to mid-off, and Yorkshire were almost halfway to their target at the end of the powerplay (73-2).

To their credit, the hosts kept chipping away. Brook slapped Stanley to mid-off, Shadab swung hard at Brown and edged to the keeper, and Jonny Tattersall was taken in the covers off a leading edge off Dwayne Bravo.

But Kohler-Cadmore showed a particular taste for the leg-side boundary and Yorkshire, in the end, were far too good for Elgar’s men.