Andrew Gale believes Yorkshire’s come from behind 10-run win over Durham at Emirates Riverside could be one of huge significance come the end of this summer’s Vitality Blast.
The Vikings coach was delighted to see his side roll with the punches against a Jets side who snatched defeat from the jaws of victory.
With the bat, Yorkshire were 104-5 early in the 16th over and in danger of falling short before Tim Bresnan and Jonny Tattersall shared 51 in 4.3 overs to boost the total to 157-6.
With the ball, they then saw their hosts reach halfway at 74-0.
Let’s face it, from that position, the batting team will win more often than not.
Not this time, however, as Yorkshire won for the second time in three North Group matches, giving them the ideal platform to attack leaders Worcestershire at Blackfinch New Road tomorrow (1pm).
The likes of Bresnan, who returned 2-19 from four overs to add to his earlier unbeaten 28, Matthew Fisher, Steve Patterson, Azeem Rafiq and even Adam Lyth contributed as the Jets crumbled and failed to get 15 off the last over, finishing on 147-6.
“This year we’ve won the nippers in white ball cricket,” said Gale.
“We won a lot of nippers in the 50-over competition, and that’s the first one in T20.
“They’re the games we look back on over the competition and say ‘We should have won that, we should have won that’. Thankfully, we have done.
“Last year, we came here and should have won. We went to Leicester and should have won that, Chesterfield the same.
“They’re the games you scratch your head at come the end of the tournament if you don’t qualify.
“If you win the tight games, it almost gives you more confidence.
“I thought it was a real good team performance.
“We made an effort at the start of the comp not to bring an extra overseas player in (to replace Billy Stanlake) and we’d back our own lads.
“So far, every single one of them has stood up.
“We started the game well. We got 46 in the power play, but we lost our way in the middle and didn’t control the game.
“We had a really good finish to our innings with the bat.
“The par score here is about 155, so we felt we were about par.
“We didn’t start as well as we’d have liked with the ball, but out of the power play we were outstanding.
“Bres and Patto showed their experience to close the game out.
“Bres is an experienced performer, he’s a wily campaigner. It’s good to see him in the runs and wickets. That can only be good for us going forward.
“That was the difference between the two sides – when we were under pressure there, we had a clear plan and we could see what everyone was trying to do.
“I thought Durham lost their way a little bit when it started to go around their park at the back end of their innings. That’s really encouraging.”
Bresnan, named as the man-of-the-match by the umpires, said: “I thought the clincher was probably Lythy’s over which went for six to the short boundary (Durham were 103-3 after 14 before Lyth took the ball and restricted Paul Collingwood and Will Smith).
“Patto took a chance that could have gone wrong. But that’s the game. You roll the dice.
“Rafa also contributed before myself and Steve finished it off.
“When you’re defending a lowish total – 158, it didn’t used to be low, but these days it is – you need a lot of experience, and we used the dimensions of the ground well.
“We were kind of struggling a little bit to post a total with the bat.
“As soon as I got out there, I said to Jonny Tatts ‘Let’s aim for 145-150 and see what happens’.
“To get 50 odd from the last four was a great effort, especially with the ground as big as it is.”
Worcestershire, boosted by overseas batting duo Martin Guptill and Travis Head, have now won four from four at the start of the Blast, but Yorkshire will head into the televised clash in buoyant mood.
This is the last fixture Yorkshire will have to do without their England white ball internationals.
Bresnan said: “We’re sort of waiting on some personnel to return, so it would be nice to go a long way to securing qualification before they even arrive.
“There’s going to be some tough selections!
“Worcester are a great one-day side.
“They know exactly what they’re doing, are very experienced and are tough to beat at home.
“Hopefully we can go there and someone can jump up and put in a match-winning performance.”
