Yorkshire Vikings solid not spectacular in T20 Blast, in need of stars to shine more consistently

Darren Gough, the interim managing director of cricket, has made no secret of his wish to improve a white-ball record he considers unacceptable; Yorkshire have not won a white-ball competition since 2002, and they have never won the T20 tournament.

The services of Haris Rauf, Shadab Khan, Finn Allen and Dominic Drakes cannot have come cheap, players who have dovetailed as the two overseas allowed in T20 at any given time, and the club’s ambition cannot be faulted.

Finals Day is Yorkshire’s minimum target – only twice have they been there since the competition started in 2003, finishing runners-up to Hampshire in 2012 and losing to Durham in the semi-finals in 2016 – and they would be bitterly disappointed if they were not involved at Edgbaston on July 16.

As such, a return of two wins, two defeats and a tie represents an adequate start to the 14-match group stage.

It has not been devastatingly good, but neither has it been devastatingly bad – just a passable opening all things considered.

Yorkshire started off well enough, thumping Worcestershire by seven wickets at Headingley before tying with Lancashire at Old Trafford in a match they might have won.

Successive home defeats to Leicestershire and Derbyshire were clearly disappointing, the former prevailing by 31 runs after being bowled out for just 89 the previous day, the latter winning by nine wickets in a rain-reduced affair, before Yorkshire got back on track with a six-wicket win over Durham at Headingley on Friday, chasing down a club record 208 with ominous ease.

The Leicestershire game, when they were well off the pace, and the Durham match, when they were right on the money, was something of a microcosm of Yorkshire in T20 cricket.

Historically, they have tended to blow hot and cold and there was further proof of that strange inconsistency.

Against Leicestershire, the bowling was poor and the batting not much better. Against Durham, some of the bowling was not great either but the batting, in the main, most certainly was; indeed, to win with 14 balls remaining highlighted the inherent talent and firepower.

Of course, it is far too early to be making judgements, favourable or otherwise, in the formative stages of this year’s competition, but Yorkshire’s challenge is seemingly as it always was – to strive for greater consistency in the T20 game.

It is not about winning every match, as Dawid Malan saliently pointed out the other day, but it is about winning the key moments more often than not – particularly, of course, in the knockout stages, with Yorkshire falling at the quarter-final hurdle last year precisely because they did not win them against Sussex in Chester-le-Street.

Now they head into Monday’s match against Nottinghamshire at Headingley seeking to make it three wins out of six, thus maintaining the 50 per cent wins-to-games ratio that Malan also believes is needed to reach the last eight, which would keep them on course.

Given the players and resources at their disposal, though, Yorkshire should perhaps be winning two-thirds of their games.

It is never easy with players dipping in-and-out due to international commitments, or franchise competitions, but Yorkshire are by no means unique in that respect and possess a talented core of home-grown players.

Overseas signings can be hit-and-miss, and Yorkshire’s have been slightly more miss than hit so far.

Haris Rauf did alright, nothing special, in the four games he played, capturing four wickets at an economy rate of 7.92, but Shadab Khan should be paying Yorkshire as opposed to the other way round if he does not improve significantly on a combined return of 12-0-116-1 and 16 runs in three innings when he returns for the final six group games after Pakistan duty. So far, Shadab has fallen well below expectations.

Finn Allen looked the business on debut on Friday, getting the chase off to a fast start with 29 from 12, and Dominic Drakes looked a useful acquisition even if figures of 4-0-43-2 perhaps suggested otherwise from afar.

Ultimately, though, Yorkshire need more from their overseas players collectively to win the T20.

Ditto from Adil Rashid (3-151 from 16.3 overs and an economy rate of 9.15), with only Jordan Thompson (12 wickets at 13.66) having produced with the ball and, to a lesser extent, Matthew Revis, who is the joint second-highest wicket-taker with four.

Batting-wise, Malan and Harry Brook have twice made half-centuries, while Adam Lyth and David Willey came to the party, so to speak, in the win against Durham with outstanding contributions of 70-plus.

A shout-out, too, for Will Fraine, an under-rated T20 player in this judgement and someone who seems to have an uncanny knack of finding – and clearing – the boundary, a very handy customer.

A solid start for Yorkshire, then, no better and no worse.

Now, on the back of that magnificent victory on Friday, they have the platform to back up their ambition with consistent good results.