Yorkshire CCC keep momentum going with Trent Bridge triumph
ONE swallow does not make a summer, as they say, and Yorkshire’s search for a second swallow after gaining their first win in the Vitality Blast at Headingley on Sunday met with success in Nottingham on Wednesday, where they beat the hosts by nine runs.
The momentum generated by that triumph against Leicestershire - after three successive defeats to kick off the competition - did not go to waste as they backed it up on a sun-kissed evening, with Trent Bridge bathed in a golden light.
After choosing to bat on a good pitch, albeit one on which the ball was prone to stick a little and hold for the spinners, Yorkshire scored 175-8 from their 20 overs, Dawid Malan leading the way with 58 from 28 balls with seven fours and three sixes.
In reply, Nottinghamshire were threateningly positioned at 104-3 in the 12th over, but a slump from that point, through a combination of some poor shots, good bowling and excellent catching, saw them fall short on 166-9, Jack White taking 4-33 on his Yorkshire T20 debut and Jafer Chohan 2-18 from his four overs.
“With us losing three and now winning two, it changes really quickly,” said Anthony McGrath, the Yorkshire head coach.
“We play again Friday, Sunday, and again the following Friday, and hopefully we can keep on this run and get a few more wins before we break again for the County Championship.
“We’ve kind of tried to keep the outside noise out, if you like, because we know how quickly things can change and it’s not always easy saying when you lose games that you're not far away.
“People think it’s a bit of a cliché, a bit of an excuse, but, you know, I genuinely thought we haven't been far away, and it’s nice to get these two wins on the board.”
Before a crowd of 9,163, Yorkshire made an excellent start, reaching 75-0 at the end of the powerplay.
Adam Lyth set the tone, sweeping the spin of Matthew Montgomery for six in the first over, the left-hander following up by lofting Daniel Sams over backward square-leg for six in the second over.
Then it was over to Malan, who crashed Dillon Pennington for a leg-side six and then ripped into Conor McKerr, his former Yorkshire team-mate.
Malan hammered the first five balls of McKerr’s first over for 4, 4, 4, 4, 6 before a dot ball to finish the over almost drew gasps of astonishment from spectators.
Malan reached his third successive half-century in this year’s competition from 24 balls before Yorkshire lost their first wicket with the total on 83, Lyth rather reaching for one from Pennington and spooning to Joe Clarke at cover.
Yorkshire slipped to 99-2 in the ninth over when the returning McKerr, one ball after being hit for another big leg-side six by Malan, finally got the visiting skipper when he got a leading edge back to him as he tried to turn to leg, a tame finish to another fine innings.
James Wharton swept Calvin Harrison, the leg-spinner, to Sams at deep mid-wicket (117-3 in the 12th over), and then Harry Duke got a feather behind to wicketkeeper Tom Moores off left-arm spinner Liam Patterson-White (120-4 in the 13th).
Patterson-White claimed another scalp three balls later when Will Luxton pulled to Harrison at deep mid-wicket (121-5) as Yorkshire stumbled after their fast start.
Will Sutherland, playing as a batsman only after missing the last two games with a broken toe, supplied 15 to the cause, sharing a stand of 35 in 25 balls with Matty Revis before skying Sams a simple return.
A strange incident followed in the penultimate over when Dom Bess was given out caught behind off Pennington as he tried a reverse hit, only for umpire Naeem Ashraf to change his mind after Bess protested respectfully.
It barely mattered, Bess falling later in the over when he was another taken on the mid-wicket boundary.
Chohan chipped Sams to cover in a final over from which only four runs came, Revis - dropped off the last ball by keeper Moores - finishing on 27 from 22 deliveries with two fours and a six.
Just as Yorkshire made a fast start with the bat, so they did with the ball, White striking with the fifth and sixth deliveries of his first over from the Pavilion End.
Lyndon James was bowled trying to pull a ball which did not get up as much as he thought, and Jack Haynes practically helped a delivery to James Wharton at point as the hosts slipped to 4-2.
White’s second over was not as successful, Clarke launching him for two sixes and two fours to go with a wide.
Nottinghamshire, who were without one of their overseas players, Moises Henriques, due to a back injury, had recovered to 67-2 at the end of the powerplay, only eight runs behind Yorkshire at that six-over stage.
Freddie McCann, the promising left-hander, had scored 31 of those runs - but he advanced no further when a miscued reverse-sweep off Chohan’s third delivery gave Sutherland a simple catch at cover.
Clarke, the Nottinghamshire skipper, reached a fine half-century from 28 balls but he perished to his next ball, looping Bess to Sutherland at long-off. It left the hosts 104-4 in the 12th over and the contest firmly in the balance.
Another poor shot followed when Moores charged White and gave Bess a real skier at long-on in front of the pavilion, which he judged to perfection (106-5).
Bess took a second skier in a similar position when Montgomery got too much elevation and not enough distance off Will O’Rourke (119-6), the New Zealander conceding just two runs in that 15th over.
It felt like Yorkshire had the edge by then, and after Sams struck successive sixes off Bess, he hammered back a stinging return to the bowler and was on his way for 20 (136-7).
Patterson-White was caught at long-off by Lyth off Chohan in the following over (136-8), and White bowled McKerr off the penultimate delivery, Harrison finishing unbeaten on 18.