Picture by Alex Whitehead/SWpix.com. All-rounder Dom Bess impressed with ball and bat at New Road today.
Worcestershire Rapids v Yorkshire
Vitality Blast, North Group
Sunday June 1, 2025, 2.30pm
Visit Worcestershire New Road
Toss: Yorkshire won it and elected to bowl
Teams – Worcestershire: Brett D’Oliveira c, Ed Pollock, Kashif Ali, Adam Hose, Ethan Brookes, Gareth Roderick c, Ben Dwarshuis, Tom Hinley, Fateh Singh, Adam Finch, Jacob Duffy.
Yorkshire: Dawid Malan c, Adam Lyth, Will Luxton, James Wharton, Harry Duke w, Will Sutherland, Matthew Revis, Dom Bess, Jafer Chohan, Will O’Rourke, Dan Moriarty.
Summary: Yorkshire slipped to their second successive defeat in this season’s Vitality Blast, with Worcestershire Rapids totalling an imposing 201-5 and defending it comfortably.
Home captain Brett D’Oliveira top-scored with four sixes in an opening 79 off 48 balls – a career best score. He shared a century stand for the third wicket with Adam Hose, who also excelled with 54 off 37.
Dom Bess impressed again for Yorkshire with two wickets, but they collapsed to 40-5 in 5.2 overs of their chase and, from there, stuttered to 135-8 from 19.3 overs. Bess top-scored with 41 not out off 37 balls, with rain preventing the game from reaching a full conclusion.
Worcestershire won by 60 runs on DLS.
Match Report: High totals have been an early feature of this season’s Vitality Blast, with the number of 200-plus totals across the competition reaching double figures. And we’ve been going less than a week.
Good pitches, buccaneering batters, a bowler’s nightmare.
It was very much the same here at New Road on a hybrid pitch.
Worcestershire, inserted, attacked early, with opener Brett D’Oliveira taking two boundaries off the pace of Will O’Rourke in the second over as the score reached 16-0.
Dom Bess’s off-spin had Ed Pollock caught at short third-man in the third over before Kashif Ali miscued a pull at O’Rourke at the start of the sixth and found mid-on, leaving the score at 51-2.
From there, D’Oliveira and Adam Hose shared 117 for the third wicket inside 12 overs, the pair both reaching their half-centuries.
D’Oliveira led the way with a career best score, including four sixes. Two were hoisted and drilled down the ground off successive Jafer Chohan deliveries.
The skipper reached his fifty in 34 balls and Hose followed off 33.
Bess was the pick of the Yorkshire bowlers with 2-25 from three overs, while Will Sutherland also struck twice added to one for Kiwi O’Rourke.
The White Rose dropped short quite regularly, but they can take credit for keeping the Rapids to a manageable total after they had been 165-2 after 16 overs.
Only 36 runs came from the last four overs of the innings, including two wickets for Sutherland and one for Bess. The former had D’Oliveira well caught by Dawid Malan running back from wide mid-off, the latter got Hose caught at long-off.
A brief rain delay came with Yorkshire at 10-0 after one over of their chase.
Upon the resumption, Malan was bowled without scoring as he tried to attack Kiwi fast bowler Jacob Duffy – 11-1 in the second over.
And when he was followed back to the pavilion five balls later by Will Luxton with Yorkshire 16-2, that 202-target looked a long way away.
Luxton, on one, pulled Adam Finch’s seam out towards deep mid-wicket, where Tom Hinley took a fine diving catch on the run from deep square-leg.
For the next few overs, things went from bad to worse as the game quickly went away from the visitors, who slipped to 40-5 in the sixth over.
James Wharton was run out by a side foot at the stumps from bowler Adam Finch, Harry Duke was caught at cover off the same bowler and Sutherland caught behind down leg off Ben Dwarshuis.
Shortly afterwards, Adam Lyth fell for 38 caught at deep square-leg off the medium pace of Ethan Brookes, and the Rapids had this one sewn up at 51-6 in the eighth.
Bess and Matthew Revis then tried their best to recover the situation, as forlorn as the task was.
Both men pulled a six apiece in a 63-run partnership which ended when the latter was bowled by Duffy slower ball yorker for 33 – 114-7 in the 15th.
From there, the contest drifted to a conclusion, though heavy rain did take the players off with three balls remaining after Chohan had holed out to Dwarshuis, who claimed his second wicket to match Duffy and Finch.
Bess had a good day, finishing 41 not out. But it will be of little consolation to the all-rounder.
Magic Moment: Unfortunately for Yorkshire, these were few and far between. But Dawid Malan’s catch over his shoulder running back from a wide mid-off to help Will Sutherland remove Brett D’Oliveira late in the Worcestershire innings was excellent.
Turning point: The powerplay of Yorkshire’s chase was disastrous, seeing them reach 46-5 after six overs, with Dawid Malan, Will Luxton, James Wharton, Harry Duke and Will Sutherland all departing. It left them, unfortunately, with nowhere to go.
Stat of the match: Worcestershire’s total of 201-5 was the 10th total of 200 or more already scored in this season’s Vitality Blast, which only started on Thursday.
What they said – Yorkshire head coach Anthony McGrath: “Again, disappointing. I think a good pitch, though maybe 200 was a little bit too many. But we felt confident we could chase them down.
“Pretty similar to the other night (Northamptonshire), we lost wickets early on, and that can be obviously crucial when you’re chasing 200.
“The first two games, we’ve just not been on it individually. That obviously reflects in the team.
“We couldn’t get our wickets in the middle today, and (we lost) too many wickets in the powerplay, which leaves you an uphill task. “We’ve got to be better.
“It’s tough to take, but you can’t really dwell on it. You’ve got to really just practice well and make sure we’re putting in better performances.”
What’s next: Yorkshire have a short break before they travel to face the Bears at Edgbaston on Friday night (7pm). That is the second part of a daily T20 double header with the Bears’ women.
