Yorkshire must embrace and enjoy the occasion tomorrow night as the Vikings face Nottinghamshire at Headingley in a must win Vitality Blast fixture (7pm).
That’s the view of Dawid Malan and Jordan Thompson, both players who were crucial to Sunday’s most recent victory over Worcestershire at New Road when the visitors chased down 206 to win for the sixth time in 13 outings this campaign.
This isn’t quite a case of win and Yorkshire are through to the quarter-finals. But it’s certainly a case of lose this final North Group fixture against the bottom team in the group and they’re out.
Exactly what Yorkshire will need to happen will become clearer after tonight’s round of matches when Worcestershire host Derbyshire and Northamptonshire face Birmingham.
Derbyshire and Northamptonshire are qualification rivals for the Vikings, who could go into tomorrow knowing that a point would be enough to seal a top-four finish for a second time in three years. More, realistically, a win is required.
Malan said: “Every game in our last four or five has been a must win game This one’s the same.
“If you make things too important, it becomes harder to get the result you want.
Picture by Alex Whitehead/SWpix.com. Dawid Malan has urged Yorkshire to relax and enjoy the effective knockout element of tomorrow’s final group game.
“We just have to go out, do what we do, trust the process and hopefully it goes in our favour on the night.
“To be in a position to win a game and hopefully qualify is massive for us. It’s what you want. You don’t want to be out of the equation come this stage.
“We’ve played some really good cricket at times, and we’ve been poor at times where we’ve lost games we should have won.
“Thankfully, at Worcester, we got over the line in a chase because we have lost two or three chases where we should have got over the line. Hopefully that gives us a bit of confidence and learning in terms of how we want to go about it at the end.”
Opener Malan hit a brilliant 93 not out off 50 balls at New Road to anchor the pursuit of 206, which required 132 to be scored off the final 10 overs from 74-1.
Thompson came in at the end to wrap things up with a blistering 40 not out off 14 balls.
The all-rounder said: “You’ve got to go out there, try and enjoy it and not put too much pressure on yourself.
Picture by Allan McKenzie/SWpix.com. Jordan Thompson celebrates victory over Durham at Headingley recently. Another tomorrow would give the Vikings a great chance of quarter-final cricket.
“If we perform and be brave and still come out on the losing side, there’s not much we can do. But, hopefully, we find ourselves sneaking through.
“When we’re under pressure, we seem to pull it off.
“We spoke about it the other day. We’re a team who can get on runs, as we showed last year with those six wins in a row. Sometimes we can take our foot off the gas. But we need to do something about that and be a bit more ruthless.”
Malan is Yorkshire’s leading run-scorer in this season’s Blast with 420, including three fifties.
The England left-hander, the former world number one ranked T20 batter, has been outstanding for the county in this competition for the last two years. In 2023, he led the way with 546 runs.
“It’s been different because the last two years, I’ve been available for the full comp and it’s not been hopping in for three games, disappearing for two,” he said.
“It’s been nice to get a bit of rhythm, to be around the boys and get into a tournament because it can be hard when you’re in and out with other things on the radar.
Picture by John Clifton/SWpix.com. Dawid Malan has scored close to 1,000 runs in the last two Blast seasons combined.
“To be as consistent as I have been for the last couple of years, I’ve been incredibly pleased with.”
Thompson’s late blast against Worcester included four sixes and was his highest T20 score since hitting 50 in the semi-final against Lancashire at Edgbaston in 2022.
He has been impressive with the ball for some time now in T20 cricket, and not just for the Vikings. He has performed consistently in other leagues such as the Hundred.
By his own admission, though, it could have been better with the bat.
But the signs are good, with a number of valuable contributions coming of late, including 44 in the innings Championship win over Gloucestershire at Scarborough last month.
“Sunday is exactly what I want to do for us in T20 cricket,” he said. “It’s been too few and far between recently.
“I’ve chipped in with a few 20s and 30s, but to get us over the line was nice, especially having not done it in that game against Birmingham at home.
Picture by John Mallett. Jordan Thompson has produced some valuable contributions with the bat of late. And he wants more.
“I’ve had big contributions before, but I’ve not really backed it up consistently.
“It’s easier said than done, but it’s something I’m desperate to do.
“To go out there and perform like that gives me a lot of confidence.
“I actually spoke to Donovan Ferreira before the (Worcester) game about my batting, and he came up with an interesting piece of advice.
“He felt I was getting my hands too tight into my body and swinging around myself instead of letting my hands flow freely.
“We looked at videos before the game, and it was actually something I did against Northamptonshire (20 off seven balls in a win last month) and did really well.
For some reason, it’s crept in that I’ve got tighter and tighter over the last few weeks.
Picture by Allan McKenzie/SWpix.com. Jafer Chohan has taken nine wickets across his last two appearances.
“It was something I thought about from ball one out there, and it paid off.”
And on Malan’s contribution, Thompson added: “Mala’s innings was incredible.
“He went out there and paced it so well. That’s why he’s one of the best T20 players in the world and not just in the country.
“To have him there at the end was very good. He helped me through that. He just told me to keep my right shoulder, keep everything strong and not swing too hard.”
Nottinghamshire, champions in 2017 and 2020 and at least quarter-finalists in seven of the last eight years, have had a campaign to forget. They sit bottom of the table with only two wins from 13 matches.
They lost away to Lancashire last night. Captained by opening batter Joe Clarke, they have Afghanistan seamer Fazalhaq Farooqi as their overseas player. He was the joint leading wicket-taker at the recent T20 World Cup with 17 wickets.
