Yorkshire thump Roses rivals to make it four wins from five
IF you’re not from Yorkshire or Lancashire then look away now. It’s got nowt to do with you. For those still here, Yorkshire won Friday night’s Roses match at Headingley by 106 runs, their joint second-biggest victory by a runs margin in T20 and Lancashire’s heaviest runs defeat. It was, as they say, men against boys.
Yorkshire’s success had plenty to do with Jonny Bairstow, who whacked 73 from 44 balls with four sixes and seven fours, as Yorkshire made 213-7, their highest T20 Roses score at Headingley. It also had a lot to do with James Wharton (35 not out from 16 balls with three sixes and two fours) and Will Luxton (34 from 28 deliveries with three sixes and a four).
Bairstow and Luxton, who lit up this fixture at Old Trafford last year with a Yorkshire record T20 stand of 167, added 105 this time from 62 balls. And after Bairstow was the first of three wickets to fall in the space of seven deliveries around the 13-over mark, Wharton and Matty Revis shared 55 from 26 to ensure that a bit of a wobble became nothing more than that. Revis played his part with 23 from 13 - as did A.J. Tye towards the end with 16 from eight.
For Lancashire, seamer Tom Aspinwall took 3-32 and left-arm spinner Tom Hartley 2-26, but pace man Saqib Mahmood leaked 60 runs from four. Only Matthew Hoggard (65) has conceded more in this fixture, a blip on an otherwise successful 2005.
Left to make the highest T20 chase at Headingley, Lancashire never threatened. Liam Livingstone’s 44 from 30 balls with four fours and two sixes was a lone act of defiance, Jafer Chohan (4-17) and Moeen Ali (3-16) starring with the ball.
Sent into bat, Yorkshire lost Adam Lyth for a rapid 20, pulling to deep mid-wicket, and could even afford for Luke Wood to bowl a powerplay maiden over to Bairstow. It said everything about the captain’s experience and coolness under pressure that he simply caught up later with his usual stash of strokes.
Luxton injected impetus with a trio of pulled sixes, then Bairstow pulled Hartley for six and deposited him over long-off for another as his fifty arrived from 32 balls.
Bairstow struck consecutive sixes off the off-spinner Harry Singh, who then combined to dismiss him by flicking the ball back on the mid-wicket boundary to Joe Moores in one of those relay catches that are nowadays standard. Luxton pulled Hartley to deep mid-wicket and Yorkshire fell to 137-4 when Moeen swung across the line at the spinner and was bowled.
Wharton played a really good cameo, hoisting three leg-side sixes, and was well supported by Revis until he was caught at deep cover off Aspinwall, who struck again next ball when Faheem Ashraf was caught in the same area. Tye went lbw to the penultimate delivery as Yorkshire went past their previous T20 Roses best at Headingley of 209-8 four summers ago.
Three Lancashire batsmen were bowled inside the powerplay, Hasan Ali doing for Keaton Jennings, Ashraf for Matty Hurst, then Moeen for Marcus Harris.
Ben McDermott skied Chohan to Revis running in from long-on, then the visitors slipped to 65-5 in the 10th when Moeen trapped Moores lbw on the reverse-sweep. Livingstone struck a huge straight six off Chohan, who then saw Revis wrap his hands around another at long-on when Singh picked him out.
For Lancashire, it was Livingstone or bust - and it was bust when he swung Tye out to Dom Bess at long-on. Wood swung across the line and was bowled by Moeen, then Chohan bowled Aspinwall and Mahmood with successive deliveries, the latter a lovely googly.