Yorkshire come up Short against Mr D’Arcy and co
THIS was the first-ever match between Yorkshire and Gloucestershire in T20 cricket, although a sense of history was not easy to summon.
Not even the format’s most ardent followers would have got too worked up about the fact, a product of a change this year which sees counties play one game at home and one away against random teams from outside their group.
Still, after 23 years of T20, it was a curiosity at any rate, as well as an indication of how little Yorkshire have graced the knockout stages, when they would be more likely to meet such southern opponents.
They will be hoping to get there this year, though, having made a promising start to the competition - three wins from three going into the fixture, with Gloucestershire two from three in the Central & West group.
Could Yorkshire make it four from four and extend their own little slice of history in the process, having never previously started a T20 campaign with more than two wins?
Not quite.
First, Gloucestershire scored 217-6 after winning the toss, D’Arcy Short leading the way with 82 from 50 balls with five sixes and seven fours, the Australian left-hander sharing 95 from 55 deliveries for the second-wicket with Joe Phillips, who struck 42 from 25 with three sixes.
Then Short took 4-31 with his left-arm spin as Yorkshire were dismissed for 161, opener Adam Lyth last out for a valiant 97 from 56 balls with 13 fours and three sixes, his second-highest T20 score.
Much interest when this fixture came out focused on the prospect of Yorkshire facing Dawid Malan, their former T20 captain.
Malan joined Gloucestershire in the close-season but he has yet to make his first-team debut after suffering a calf injury prior to this tournament.
For their part, Yorkshire were unchanged after Friday’s win at Durham, as the final day of May served up warm and breezy conditions with hazy sunshine.
Gloucestershire started the match with intent, Miles Hammond clipping the first ball from Hasan Ali to the mid-wicket boundary. Later in the over he lofted him for six in the same direction, the Headingley pitch again full of runs.
An impressive feature was Yorkshire’s fielding. A.J. Tye set the tone with a brilliant diving stop to his right at mid-on when Short drove the spinner Dom Bess, saving four runs in the process, then Matty Revis pulled off an excellent catch at long-off when Hammond advanced to Moeen Ali with fatal results.
After Gloucestershire reached 43-1 at the end of the powerplay, Will Luxton caught the bug, so to speak, with a magnificent diving stop on the cover boundary when Phillips cover-drove Faheem Ashraf.
Yorkshire’s bowling was a little short at times, and Short and Phillips took advantage. Short helped Faheem over the leg-side rope, then Phillips pulled sixes off Moeen and Jafer Chohan.
Gloucestershire were 87-1 at halfway, then Short launched successive sixes off Bess to reach his fifty from 35 balls. Finally, Tye broke the second-wicket stand when Phillips tried to ramp and was caught by wicketkeeper Jonny Bairstow away to his left, leaving the visitors 119-2 in the 13th.
Short hoisted his fellow countryman Tye for a couple of leg-side sixes but was the first of two wickets in three balls for Hasan in the 16th over as Gloucestershire’s momentum stalled a touch. After pulling the Pakistani to Bess at deep backward-square, Short was followed back to the dug-out by Jack Taylor, who skied tamely to Moeen at cover.
Gloucestershire slipped to 171-5 in the next over when Kamran Dhariwal hammered Tye to Moeen in the covers again. Hasan picked up his third wicket with the final ball of his spell when Ollie Price lofted the last delivery of the penultimate over to Bess at long-on. Twenty-four came off the final over bowled by Faheem, who endured a difficult home debut with 0-60 from four overs.
Bairstow fell in the second over of the chase, lofting Price into the hands of long-on.
Luxton struck a six and three fours in Price’s next over, only to then slap him straight to mid-off.
Yorkshire lost a third wicket in the powerplay when James Wharton was bowled by Duan Jansen as they reached 65-3 after six overs, helped by six boundaries from Lyth - including successive leg-side sixes off Jansen.
Lyth launched another one straight off Short, who then broke a fourth-wicket stand of 52 when Moeen picked out deep mid-wicket.
Revis popped back a return catch next ball, Short striking again in his next over when Faheen was bowled trying to cut.
After Short bowled Bess, Tye skied a return to Jansen, whose next ball Hasan hammered straight to long-on.
Lyth was also caught at long-on seeking the six that would have brought up a deserved hundred, Taylor pouching the chance off Marchant de Lange.