Picture by Allan McKenzie/SWPix.com. Adam Lyth celebrates reaching his second career T20 century.
Yorkshire v Leicestershire Foxes, Vitality Blast North Group, Sunday July 5, 2026, 2.30pm, Headingley
Toss: Yorkshire won it and elected to bat.
Teams – Yorkshire: Jonny Bairstow c/w, Adam Lyth, Will Luxton, Sam Whiteman, Matthew Revis, Moeen Ali, Faheem Ashraf, Hassan Ali, AJ Tye, Jafer Chohan, Dan Moriarty.
Leicestershire: Rishi Patel, Stephen Eskinazi, Rehan Ahmed, Nick Kelly, Ben Cox w, Ashton Turner, Ben Green c, Liam Trevaskis, Josh Davey, Josh Hull, Alex Green.
Match summary: Adam Lyth’s stunning 131 not out off 64 balls underpinned a commanding 41-run victory which puts Yorkshire on the verge of quarter-final qualification in the Vitality Blast.
The White Rose won for the sixth game in 10 – and for the second time in three days – as they posted 207-4 and defended it comfortably against the Foxes, who finished on 166-9.
Opener Lyth hit six sixes and 16 fours before Leicestershire fell from 50-0 to 59-4 in 14 damaging balls in the powerplay. Australian seamer AJ Tye claimed three of those wickets, and he finished with 4-15 from four overs.
Pakistani overseas quick Hassan Ali also returned an excellent 4-25, his second four-wicket haul against the Foxes this season.
Picture by Allan McKenzie/SWPix.com. AJ Tye celebrates dismissing Leicestershire’s Rishi Patel, one of four wickets for the outstanding Australian seamer.
Hassan is now the leading wicket-taker in the competition with 22.
Yorkshire remain second in the North Group table and have a vice-like grip on a place in the last eight with two group games remaining.
They could even qualify for the quarter-finals as early as tomorrow. They are 10 points clear of third-placed Lancashire, who have three to play. If they lose to Derbyshire at Emirates Old Trafford tomorrow evening, Yorkshire are through.
Report: Yorkshire got out of the blocks impressively. But, as it happened, not quite as well as Leicestershire did. More of that later…
Anyway, Adam Lyth pulled Alex Green’s seam for six over deep mid-wicket and then took three successive boundaries off the same bowler a couple of overs later as the score reached 50-0 after five.
Lyth, reached 50 off 27 balls shortly before Jonny Bairstow was lbw to Rehan Ahmed for 28 in the 10th over – 91-0.
Rehan removed Will Luxton in his next over – 103-2 in the 12th – and later Moeen Ali. But Lyth pushed on brilliantly towards a second career T20 century and first since 2017.
This used pitch was good for batting, although not as good as it had been on Friday. There were certainly hints of it being slightly slower today.
Picture by Allan McKenzie/SWPix.com. Matthew Revis, Jonny Bairstow, Adam Lyth and Dan Moriarty all celebrate Yorkshire’s victory today.
Lyth reached his century off 55 balls with a six over long-on off a Ben Green full toss in the 18th over and then clubbed two more as 24 came off Josh Hull in the final over of the innings.
Opener Rishi Patel crashed four leg-side sixes in 34 off 14 balls as Leicestershire raced to 50-0 early in the fourth over of their chase.
The difference was that they failed to go on, whereas Yorkshire did.
Patel miscued AJ Tye to mid-on and Steve Eskinazi was bowled by Hassan Ali with no further addition to the score.
Then, in the sixth over, Tye had Nick Kelly caught at cover and fellow West Australian Ashton Turner caught behind next ball, the latter for his second successive golden duck.
At 59-4, Leicestershire were all but goners.
Rehan played nicely in a bid to rectify the situation and found a partner in Ben Cox. However, that four-wicket powerplay burst had just done too much damage.
Their 52-stand needed to be doubled at least, but Rehan holed out to long-on off Matthew Revis – 111-5 in the 12th.
Picture by Allan McKenzie/SWPix.com. Wickets wise, Hassan Ali is leading Yorkshire’s bid for Vitality Blast glory.
The score was 153 in the 17th when Cox miscued Hassan’s seam to mid-off, with the game now drifting towards a very satisfying conclusion for those of a White Rose persuasion.
Tye struck again to get Ben Green well caught by Hassan running in from long-off.
Hassan struck twice more late on and also finished with two catches. His last two wickets saw him get Liam Trevaskis caught at deep mid-wicket and bowl Alex Green with successive deliveries at the start of the 19th over.
From there, it was a procession.
Magic moment: Adam Lyth hit two leg-side sixes as he took all of 24 from the final over of Yorkshire’s innings, bowled by Josh Hull, to get Yorkshire up beyond 200 having started the 20th over on 183-4.
Turning point: Leicestershire raced to 50-0 inside 19 balls of their chase. But 14 balls later, they were 59-4, with AJ Tye having taken three of those wickets.
Stat of the match: Adam Lyth now has the two highest scores in Yorkshire’s T20 history; this and the 161 he scored against Northamptonshire here in 2017.
Picture by Allan McKenzie/SWPix.com. Adam Lyth reverse sweeps en-route to today’s century.
What they said – Yorkshire opener Adam Lyth: “I probably should have got a hundred against Gloucestershire here (97). But it’s nice to contribute to a win. I’m over the moon that we got over the line, and the bowlers have done an unbelievable job.
“It wasn’t quite as good as the Durham pitch on Friday. Slower balls and knuckle balls, things like that, were quite hard to hit. I guess obviously left and right-hand played a huge part for us.
“We could always attack the short side, which they couldn’t do with mainly right-handers.
“Then Hassan and AJ were unbelievable. I think they got 8-40 between them, which just shows their unbelievable skill.
“There’s a long way to go in this comp. Let’s just keep getting the wins, and then we’ll see where it takes us. Hopefully we get to Finals Day.”
What’s next: Yorkshire have a few days of rest before tackling Lancashire Lightning at Emirates Old Trafford on Friday evening (7pm) in their penultimate Blast group stage fixture. That’s part of a Roses double header, with our women and Lancashire Thunder meeting at 3pm. Both games will be televised by Sky Sports.
