Picture by Ian Scammell/Kent Cricket. James Wharton celebrates reaching his maiden List A century, at Canterbury today.
James Wharton posted his maiden List A century – an excellent 118 off 106 balls – as Yorkshire beat Kent by 76 runs at Canterbury and, in the process, confirmed a Sunday home semi-final in the Metro Bank One-Day Cup.
Wharton converted his 13th half-century of the summer across all formats into a hundred which underpinned the county’s 301-9 total in their final Group B fixture of the campaign at the Spitfire Ground, St Lawrence.
Yorkshire handed debuts to rookie professionals Will Bennison and Matthew Firbank, with Kent slipping from a position of strength as the visiting spinners impressed.
The hosts were 156-2 in the 29th over but fell to 174-6 in the 34th and later 225 all out inside 45 overs.
Seven wickets fell to spin, including Dom Bess taking 4-43 from nine overs and Dan Moriarty striking twice.
Fledgling all-rounder Ekansh Singh had a good day for Kent, taking three wickets with seam and scoring 71 with the bat. Both were his bests in first-team cricket. Opener Jaydn Denly also made 79, but they couldn’t deny the White Rose a seventh win in eight Group B matches and top spot with it.
Yorkshire will now head to North Marine Road on Sunday (11am) to try and advance to the county’s first List A final appearance since 2002 and their first limited overs final of any sort since 2012.
Picture by YCCC. Matthew Firbank, in between general manager of cricket Gavin Hamilton and head of the performance pathway James Martin as he signed his maiden pro contract recently, debuted in today’s Metro Bank One-Day Cup victory and took the winning wicket.
They will face the winners of Hampshire v Middlesex – the quarter-final, which is played on Thursday – for a place at Trent Bridge on September 20.
Bennison and Firbank came into the side in place of Matthew Revis, back with the Northern Superchargers in the Hundred having played at Sussex a couple of days ago, and Kent-bound Matt Milnes.
Unfortunately for Bennison, he made a five-ball duck batting at number three.
Firbank came on with the Kent chase at 43-1 after nine overs and bowled 5.2 overs for 29, including the winning wicket.
Overseas opener Imam-Ul-Haq was in the runs once again for Yorkshire, his well-paced 70 taking his tally of runs in this season’s competition to 583 from seven innings with three hundreds and three fifties.
Fingers crossed, the Pakistani left-hander sails beyond the 600-mark at the weekend.
He shared 71 inside 16 overs for the first wicket with Adam Lyth (28) after Bess had elected to bat this morning.
Picture by YCCC. Will Bennison also made his first-team debut at Canterbury today.
Lyth and Bennison fell in successive overs – 74-2 in the 17th.
Lyth lost his off-stump to Corey Flintoff’s seam – son of former England all-rounder Andrew – before Bennison, facing his fifth ball, was bowled trying to pull a googly from young leg-spinner Mo Rizvi which didn’t bounce as much as expected.
That brought Wharton to the crease, and he shared 59 for the third wicket with Imam, who was trapped lbw by the bustling seam of Singh.
Wharton played some eye-catching shots in an innings which advanced at good pace without going into overdrive until its latter stages. He has now scored first-team hundreds in all formats.
The 24-year-old played nicely down the ground early, pulled with authority against seam and spin and even almost reverse pulled the left-arm seam of Fred Klaassen for one of his 13 fours.
From 133-3 in the 28th over, he shared a 101-run partnership with Fin Bean, whose 39 included the only six of the Yorkshire innings – hammered over deep mid-wicket against Flintoff.
Wharton had fallen just short of a century in the last two group matches, scoring 84 in Friday’s win over Durham at Scarborough and 85 in victory over Sussex at Hove on Sunday.
Picture by Ian Scammell/Kent Cricket. Ben Cliff got the early wicket of Ben Dawkins.
So it would have been as much relief as joy when he reached the three-figure mark off 94 balls with 11 fours, by which stage the visitors were 267-6 in the 46th over.
Wharton was caught behind pulling at Klaassen in the last over before Ben Cliff hit two late boundaries to boost the total up beyond the 300-mark.
Kent then started their chase confidently, with Jaydn Denly – nephew of Joe, who was in the home team today – laying the platform in dynamic fashion before Singh built on his good work.
By the time left-handed Denly reached his fifty, Kent were 72-1 in the 15th over.
Cliff had got the other opener, Ben Dawkins, caught at cover with the score on 25 before Denly and Singh shared 97 for the second wicket.
At that stage, Kent were on course, but Denly – who had reached his fifty in 54 balls – miscued Bess’s off-spin high to cover having hit 14 fours. That left the score at 122-2 in the 23rd over.
Kent advanced further, with Singh getting to his first fifty in as many balls.
Picture by Ian Scammell/Kent Cricket. Dom Bess will lead his side into a semi-final at Scarborough on Sunday.
But things were about to change, with the White Rose spinners to the fore.
Kent lost three wickets for eight runs inside three, with Moriarty striking twice in as many balls, as the score fell from 156-2 in the 29th over to 164-5 in the 31st.
Yorkshire kicked the door wide open firstly thanks to a moment of brilliance from substitute fielder Noah Kelly, briefly on the field for Lyth. He helped Bess remove Chris Benjamin with a juggling catch on the boundary as he tried, successfully, to stay inside the boundary rope.
Moriarty then had Joe Denly caught at long-off and Olly Curtiss lbw with successive balls.
And further success came quickly as George Hill forced Singh to skew high to backward point where Kelly – back on the field in place of Imam – took another catch, leaving Kent at 174-6 in the 34th over.
Adam Lyth returned the favour in uprooting one of Flintoff’s stumps – leg-stump in fact as he attempted to sweep – with the score on 206 in the 40th. By this stage, Yorkshire were home and hosed, a theory strengthened when Bess bowled opposition captain Harry Finch for 32 and Klaassen for nought in the 42nd over.
Firbank, a tall, hit-the-pitch bowler with good pace, then had last man Rizvi caught at deep mid-wicket to wrap things up.
