Picture by Allan McKenzie/SWPix.com. In his first season as Yorkshire’s T20 captain, Jonny Bairstow will lead his side into a Blast quarter-final.
Yorkshire head into Wednesday night’s Vitality Blast quarter-final with defending champions Somerset at Headingley with significant confidence, says head coach Anthony McGrath, following a rounded group campaign.
The White Rose claimed seven wins from 12 North Group fixtures to finish second in the group, four of them setting a target and three of them chasing.
Five of their seven wins have come at Headingley, where the match will begin at 4.30pm to avoid a clash with England’s football World Cup semi-final against Argentina in Atlanta at 8pm.
“You’ve got to win either way in this comp,” said McGrath. “So, I don’t mind either way.
“I think, in big games, it depends where you’re playing and so on, what kind of pitch it is. But we’ve shown that we can do both. Chasing with the batting line-up that we’ve got, we’re never dead. And if we do bat first, we can defend any total.
“We’re set up for both.”
Yorkshire may have only qualified for seven Blast quarter-finals in the 23-year history of this competition, but there is plenty of big game experience in this squad. And that’s not just on the field with the likes of Jonny Bairstow, Moeen Ali, AJ Tye, Hassan Ali and Logan van Beek to name a few. McGrath himself is also a Blast champion.
Picture by Allan McKenzie/SWPix.com. Anthony McGrath has had his hands on the Vitality Blast trophy before.
In 2019, he won this competition as coach of Essex.
Asked if there’s anything different which needs to be done in a big game such as a quarter-final, McGrath said: “I think it’s about not doing anything different.
“It’s going into the game exactly how we’ve approached the whole competition.
“Yes, it’s a knockout game, there’s more on it, but it’s still the same process with bat and ball.
“We know at this stage, eight teams left, anyone can beat anyone. It’s just who handles it on the day, really. If we play like we have done for the majority of this competition, we’ve got a brilliant chance.
“So, we’re full of confidence for Wednesday.”
Like Yorkshire, Somerset also won seven of their 12 group games and finished second in the Central and West Group. The White Rose finished two points better off.
Picture by Allan McKenzie/SWPix.com. Hassan Ali has been sensational in his first season with Yorkshire.
Somerset won their last five group matches to qualify for the quarter-finals.
They are three-time winners of this competition, including in 2023 and last summer. They beat Hampshire in last September’s final.
In fact, the Taunton county have reached Finals Day in each of the last five seasons. They have won it twice in that time, were runners-up twice more and were beaten semi-finalists on the other occasion.
Captained by all-rounder Lewis Gregory, they have Australians Riley Meredith and Daniel Sams as their two overseas players and include the likes of Thomas and James Rew, Craig Overton, Jack Leach and ex-Yorkshire batter Tom Kohler-Cadmore.
James Rew, who made his England Test debut earlier this summer against New Zealand, is their leading run-scorer with 426, while Sams is their leading wicket-taker with 17.
Sams is eight behind Hassan Ali, who is the competition’s leading wicket-taker with 25. Pakistani overseas seamer Hassan is four wickets better off than any other bowler.
McGrath added: “We’d come up against Hassan before, particularly at Essex, so we knew how good he was. He has that infectious energy everywhere.
Picture by Alex Broadway/Getty Images. Tom Kohler-Cadmore is returning to Headingley.
“You see him at training, he’s exactly the same, he doesn’t do anything half-heartedly.
“To get 25 is superb, isn’t it.
“We really missed a powerplay and death bowler last year. For him to bowl a couple up top and then 18 and 20, to have that kind of record at strike-rate is magnificent. He can’t do it all the time, but the fact he wants to do it and doesn’t get fazed by it, I think it’s half the battle.
“He’s got unbelievable skill, change of pace, yorkers, he bowls wide hole, he’s got different options, and he’s that unflappable character as well. He’s been amazing.”
This will be the first ever meeting between Yorkshire and Somerset in T20 cricket, and it’s a game which Sky Sports have chosen to televise.
Come Wednesday evening there will only be two counties who Yorkshire have never met in the Blast. They are Kent Spitfires and Middlesex.
Finals Day will take place at Edgbaston on Saturday should Yorkshire qualify. The other quarter-finals are: Hampshire v Essex, Nottinghamshire v Surrey and Northamptonshire v Gloucestershire.
