Last night’s four-wicket star Dan Moriarty believes Yorkshire can put their opposition in a spin over the next few weeks of Vitality Blast cricket, both at home and away.
Moriarty’s career best 4-25 set the platform for a clinical opening night North Group success against Worcestershire at Headingley, bowling the Rapids out for just 101.
Seven of their wickets fell to spin, with Dom Bess impressing with two wickets and Jafer Chohan one.
Adam Lyth top-scored in the reply with an unbeaten 55, setting the Vikings up ideally for a Midlands road trip, which sees them face Leicestershire and Northamptonshire away tonight and on Sunday.
First up are Leicestershire Foxes at the Uptonsteel County Ground, Grace Road this evening, starting at 6.30pm.
Moriarty described last night’s victory as “clinical” – “A nice way to start,” he said.
Picture by Alex Whitehead/SWpix.com. Dan Moriarty celebrates one of four wickets against Worcestershire.
Yorkshire’s new signing struck twice with the new ball and twice more just outside the powerplay to really put the Rapids up a stream and without a paddle.
Last season’s loanee only played Championship cricket before making his move from Surrey permanent, on a three-year deal. So that was his T20 debut in Vikings’ sky blue.
Moriarty led a different look Yorkshire attack expertly. With a host of seam bowling injuries, coach Ottis Gibson and captain Shan Masood have opted to go spin heavy.
Moriarty described himself, Bess and Chohan as the “spin triplets” and believes they work well together. They can even use the off-spin of Lyth and Joe Root if needed, which they weren’t on night one.
Moriarty said: “It will ebb and flow. I got a couple of wickets (last night), but we’ll bounce it around. They bowled well, and we’re a collective and were effective as a unit.
“That’s the way our squad has mapped up now. We’ve unfortunately had a few injuries to our seamers, so we’re going more spin heavy, which is fine. I think we’ve got good enough batters to play other team’s spinners. We’ll see how it pans out.”
Picture by Alex Whitehead/SWpix.com. Dom Bess was superb with the ball, claiming two wickets last night.
The interesting thing now will be seeing how the plan unfolds away from home, where Yorkshire aren’t in control of conditions. They can’t dictate the nature and position of the pitch or push the boundaries out that little bit further.
Moriarty is confident that things will work out.
“It’s an adaption thing,” he said.
“From what I’ve seen – this is my first time playing in the North Group – there are some big grounds, and there are grounds that spin quite a lot. We’ll use that.
“If need be, we’ll adapt. I think our spinners are good at bowling on good wickets and turning ones.”
With two more games in three days, the Vikings now have the chance to build on their pretty much perfect start.
Picture by Alex Whitehead/SWpix.com. Emerging leggie Jafer Chohan impressed again. Captain Shan Masood congratulates him after removing Hayden Walsh Junior.
“It does come thick and fast, and T20 cricket is a big momentum thing,” said Moriarty.
“We’ll take a lot of confidence from this performance, but it’s a different game every game.”
The Worcestershire game was actually only Moriarty’s second T20 game since the 2022 season. Last summer, he only played once in the Blast game for Surrey, his only wicket that of England white ball captain Jos Buttler in a quarter-final win at Emirates Old Trafford.
“It was a frustrating period,” he added. “But I can’t really fault Surrey because they had a very strong squad last year, and I was getting left out for some international players. But it’s really nice to be playing T20 cricket again.”
This will be Leicestershire’s opening game of the 2024 Blast. The three-time champions finished bottom of last season’s North Group. They won two and lost 12 of their 14 matches.
A much-changed team will be captained by Australian wicketkeeper-batter Peter Handscomb, formerly of Yorkshire. Another ex-Headingley player Ben Mike is also likely to feature. Mike’s fellow all-rounder Wiaan Mulder, the South African, has returned to Grace Road as an overseas player alongside Handscomb.
Picture by Alex Whitehead/SWpix.com. Former Viking Ben Mike is likely to play against Yorkshire tonight.
