Picture by Alex Whitehead/SWpix.com. Yorkshire head coach Anthony McGrath is confident Yorkshire can turn around their losing start to this season’s Vitality Blast.
Anthony McGrath knows from experience that there’s no need to panic following Yorkshire’s two defeats from two beginning to this summer’s Vitality Blast.
The White Rose’s men have lost their opening pair of North Group matches, at home to Northamptonshire and away to Worcestershire, to add to their frustrating start to the summer across both red and white-ball cricket.
Less than ideal, clearly, but defining? Nowhere near.
Yorkshire are aiming for a top-four finish in the North Group to qualify for the quarter-finals.
They are in next in action against the Bears tomorrow at Edgbaston (7pm).
“I think seven wins, normally you would say (would be enough),” said coach McGrath. “But it just depends on teams beating each other.
“You normally get someone who runs away with it. But I think before the tournament, if you look at seven. Eight, you’re definitely safe. That’s the mark we’ve got to look at.
Picture by Alex Whitehead/SWpix.com. Yorkshire’s Vitality Blast captain Dawid Malan.
“Any team that gets on a run, they’re going to be dangerous to stop. And that’s what we’ve got to do sooner rather than later.
“In a 20-over game, a bad three or four overs can kill you, and that’s what’s happened in the first two games. So we’ve got to be better.
“We can’t really make any excuses. We’ve just got to front up, take the medicine as such and make sure we’re better on Friday.”
McGrath is a winning Blast coach, having triumphed in 2019 when in charge of Essex Eagles, who had also been caught on the starter’s blocks that season.
“In 2019, I think we won one out of the first seven and ended up winning it,” he said.
McGrath’s memory of that campaign is not quite 100 percent accurate, but the point remains.
In fact, the Eagles only won two of their first 10 matches in the South Group and ended up qualifying in fourth place with only five wins to their name.
Picture by Alex Whitehead/SWpix.com. Yorkshire’s Vitality Blast campaign continues under the Edgbaston lights tomorrow night.
It would be dangerous to look at the five wins and think that would be enough to qualify given the summer when the Eagles beat Worcestershire in the final was a particularly wet one. Every team in the South had at least one match rained off. Essex had four.
Incidentally, up in the North, Yorkshire finished fifth and had four matches abandoned.
The point is, Yorkshire have got time to turn things around. But they could do with getting some points on the board quickly.
This weekend, they have two games in three days, firstly against the Bears and then against Leicestershire Foxes at Headingley on Sunday afternoon.
The latter forms part of a historic T20 double header day – the first time Yorkshire’s men and women have played at the same venue on the same day. The women also play Leicestershire in their Blast, starting in the morning.
Jonny Bairstow has returned from the IPL but has picked up a calf problem in training and has failed a fitness test ahead of a clash with a Bears’ side who have also lost their first two matches. Jordan Thompson remains sidelined with a side injury, while George Hill has been called up by the England Lions to face India A at Northampton, starting tomorrow.
Yorkshire have conceded 200 plus totals in each of their two matches against the Steelbacks and Rapids, though almost chased 238 against the former at Headingley last Thursday.
Picture by Alex Whitehead/SWpix.com. Picture by Alex Whitehead/SWpix.com. Dom Bess has taken two wickets in each of the first two North Group matches.
One bowler who has stood out has been the off-spin of Dom Bess, who has returned hauls of 2-29 from four overs and 2-25 from three overs respectively. He also hit 41 not out in the lower middle order as Yorkshire fell short of chasing 202 against Worcestershire at New Road on Sunday.
On Yorkshire’s potential route to the quarter-finals, he echoed McGrath’s thoughts.
He said: “T20’s such a fickle game. If you go on and win five on a bounce now, no-one remembers these two defeats. And these are probably the ones you’d rather lose at the start than the back two to get knocked out.”
That “fickle” nature of T20 is perhaps highlighted by a couple of recent visits to Edgbaston.
Yorkshire have lost each of their last two games there against the Bears in 2023 and 2024. But in 2021 and 2022, they lost by 10 wickets and then won by 10 wickets.
The Bears have since dropped Birmingham from their title and want to be known simply by their nickname in this format.
They have been beaten at the start of this competition by Nottinghamshire away and Durham at home.
Picture by David Rogers/Getty Images. Moeen Ali is playing for the Bears in this season’s Blast before calling time on his illustrious career.
They are captained by wicketkeeper-opener Alex Davies and have New Zealand skipper Tom Latham as their overseas player. He is also opening the batting. England World Cup winner Moeen Ali is playing his last campaign before retirement.
Pakistan pacer Hassan Ali is their other overseas player, but he missed the first two matches because of international duty.
Bess is four wickets away from 50 in T20 cricket for Yorkshire.
And he added: “As a T20 cricketer, I just want to make sure I’m the reliable, consistent man that Mala can jump to. There’s no sort of magic to what I do. It’s pretty solid basics and pure execution.
“I’ve always backed my T20 cricket. It was obviously a lack of opportunity (at Somerset). “That’s why it was a big draw to come to Yorkshire.
“One of my individual goals is to get a chance in the Hundred. I obviously haven’t had any of that experience, franchise cricket or the Hundred. For me, the next step is trying to show my qualities through consistency. Then, hopefully, I get that. But, ultimately, I think winning games for Yorkshire gets you in the door sooner.”
It’s a T20 double header day at Edgbaston tomorrow. The Bears Women face Somerset in the Blast from 3pm. Yorkshire batter Sterre Kalis is on loan with the Bears and is likely to play.
Yorkshire Men’s squad to face Birmingham Bears (A-Z): Dom Bess, Jafer Chohan, Ben Coad, Harry Duke, Will Luxton, Adam Lyth, Dawid Malan, Matt Milnes, Dan Moriarty, Will O’Rourke, Matty Revis, Jonny Tattersall, James Wharton
