Durham v Yorkshire Vikings
Vitality Blast, North Group
Friday June 11 2021, 6.30pm
Emirates Riverside
Toss: Yorkshire, who opted to bowl first.
Teams: Yorkshire – Lyth, Bairstow w, Malan, Kohler-Cadmore, Brook, Fraine, Willey c, Thompson, Waite, Ferguson, Rashid.
Durham – Bedingham, Clark, Raine, Bancroft c, Dickson, Eckersley w, Coughlin, Carse, Borthwick, Potts, Trevaskis.
Match summary: Yorkshire fell to a 20-run defeat as they failed to chase a 182 target against Durham, who fought back from early strife with the bat.
Jonny Bairstow top-scored with 67 and Jordan Thompson claimed a career best 4-44. But the Vikings were below par in all departments on the second night of this season’s Blast North Group, finishing on 161-6.
Stat: There have been 10 games this season across both LV= Insurance County Championship and Vitality Blast cricket. Yorkshire captains Steve Patterson and David Willey have won tosses in nine of them.
Report: Yorkshire suffered a disappointing, yet entertaining, loss against Durham in reply to the hosts’ 181-8, despite Jonny Bairstow’s 67 off 50 balls at the top of the order.
The Vikings were unable to back up last night’s opening win over Birmingham Bears at Emerald Headingley and will rue allowing Durham to recover from 95-6 to post a commanding total.
Yorkshire looked well placed with Bairstow set at the crease and the score at 102-3 in the 13th over.
But he was bowled pulling at Brydon Carse’s seamers, and the Vikings struggled from there despite Harry Brook’s late 41 off 27 balls.
He took the target down from 49 off three overs to 34 off two before falling.
Ben Raine defended 25 off the last over, with Yorkshire finishing on 161-6.
Carse was Durham’s key man, earlier walloping a late 51 to lead the fightback and then returning 1-26 from three overs of seam. Matty Potts and Raine claimed two wickets apiece.
Durham’s innings was a curious one.
David Willey conceded only one off the first over of the match before Graham Clark and David Bedingham took 40 off the next two.
But Jordan Thompson (4-44) and Lockie Ferguson claimed two wickets apiece as the hosts lost six for 54 to slip to 95-6 in the 13th over.
Then, Carse smashed his maiden T20 fifty, 51 off 31 balls with two sixes, to lead a superb recovery to north of 180.
While Thompson claimed four wickets for the first time, Adil Rashid could make a strong case for being Yorkshire’s best bowler with 1-19 from his four overs of leg-spin amidst a mixed bag of a bowling and fielding performance.
Magic moment: Captain David Willey took a fabulous catch over his shoulder running back from cover towards the mid-off region to remove Sean Dickson and give Adil Rashid a wicket with his fifth ball.
That left Durham in trouble at 67-4 in the eighth over.
Turning point: Durham scored 77 off the last six overs with only four wickets left, including 41 off the last three overs – matching their haul off the first three.
Brydon Carse led the way with some clean lower order hitting in good batting conditions.
Ultimately, while the Vikings were always in the chase, that proved to be the period which cost them a second victory in as many nights.
Hero of Emerald Headingley: There were suggestions Ben Stokes would play in this fixture as he returns from a broken finger suffered on Indian Premier League duty in April.
But the Headingley Ashes hero of 2019 is still short of match fitness.
A couple of hours before the game, he was bowling in the middle doing some fielding drills and high intensity shuttle runs.
Next Friday’s return game at Headingley is not out of the question, but at this moment in time it may come a game or two too soon.
The all-rounder is likely to play some second-team cricket next week.
What they said: Coach Andrew Gale – “We didn’t start well. They were 40 odd off the first three overs. We pulled it back well, and we were trying to bowl them out.
“Fair play to Durham. They were pretty brave with the way they went about things. On a different day, Brydon Carse could have hit one up in the air.
“We were a little bit off with the ball and in the field.
“I reckon they were 10 or 15 runs more than they should have been at the halfway stage. I thought 170 would have been very gettable.
“But I knew, going into the second half, someone would have had to play out their skin to get 180.
“When Jonny (Bairstow) was there, we were in with a good chance. But we lost a little bit of momentum.
“I thought we tried to overhit a bit. We talk about being calm under pressure and taking a breath. We were a little bit frantic with the bat at the end. But that wasn’t just what cost us.
“In all facets tonight, we were about 10 percent off.”
What’s next: Yorkshire have a few days of rest before welcoming Leicestershire Foxes to Emerald Headingley next Tuesday (6.30pm). It is the first of back-to-back games, with a trip to Worcester following on Wednesday.