Ben Coad’s superb three-wicket new ball spell and a Matthew Revis hat-trick were not enough to prevent Yorkshire from losing today’s rainy Metro Bank One-Day Cup opener by just two runs against champions Kent Spitfires at Scarborough.
Yorkshire were set an in initial target of 283 before mid-innings rain and then a little bit more revised the target three times to 261 in 43 overs, 235 in 35 and then 181 in 24 on Duckworth Lewis Stern.
The Vikings had made their way to 53-2 after 11 overs when further rain hit at 5pm. Upon the resumption, they raced to 117-4 after 17, with George Hill crashing 35 off 18 balls. Unfortunately, more rain left the hosts just three runs short of the target.
Shan Masood and co are back in action here at North Marine Road on Thursday against Roses rivals Lancashire.
Kent, inserted, posted a competitive 282-9 from their 50 overs, recovering from 49-4, thanks to contrasting hundreds from Joey Evison and Ben Compton.
Coad claimed a brilliant 3-16 from 10 overs bowled straight through with the new ball, and he was the pick of Vikings attack despite Revis’s late intervention amidst five wickets falling in the final 15 balls.
Revis had fellow all-rounders James Bazley and Grant Stewart caught at deep square-leg by James Wharton before bowling Hami Qadri, leaving the score at 270-8 after 49.
The Spitfires had got themselves back in the game thanks to impressive all-rounder Evison and opener Compton, who shared a record-breaking 219 for the fifth wicket inside 33 overs.
This was Kent’s highest ever fifth-wicket partnership in List A cricket, with Evison expansive for his 136 off 106 balls with 14 fours and seven sixes. Compton was more circumspect for 103 off 137 balls.
Revis claimed his hat-trick in the penultimate over.
In the previous over, he had helped Dom Leech get rid of Evison caught at mid-wicket. It was a kind of, ‘Look at what you could have won’ moment for the fledgling fast bowler on List A debut because he was the unlucky bowler when Evison offered a tough chance on nought to a diving Dom Bess at mid-wicket.
Revis became the fifth Yorkshire player to take a hat-trick in List A cricket.
Paul Jarvis in 1982 preceded Darren Gough – present today in his role as Yorkshire’s director of cricket – achieving the feat in 1997 and 1998.
The last of them before Revis was Craig White against Kent at Headingley in the 2000 National League.
Picture by Allan McKenzie/SWpix.com. Matthew Revis.
The day started with Yorkshire wearing their one-off remake of the 1993 shirt, the first ever piece of coloured clothing the club wore.
It was on show today to help celebrate Yorkshire Day – and Coad got things started in grand style.
He had opener Marcus O’Riordan caught at first slip and former team-mate and two-time Yorkshire Championship winner Jack Leaning and then Harry Finch both caught behind. Hill, who also bowled his 10 overs straight, claimed the other early wicket on a pitch which nibbled and bounced.
Picture by Allan McKenzie/SWpix.com. Ben Coad.
From 49-4 after 15 overs, Evison and Compton superbly changed the complexion of the fixture, moving to three figures in their respective ways.
Evison, the player of the match in last season’s final win over Lancashire at Trent Bridge with 97 and two wickets, hit three of seven sixes to leg today.
One of them over wide long-leg off Ben Mike took him to his hundred. The other four were over long-off and cover.
Compton was happy to tootle along, all the pressure taken off. But he also played well through the off-side and was the man who scored the only boundary off metronomic Coad.
Evison overtook Compton to move to 83 and then sped through the nineties to reach his second career ton first off 84 balls. Kent were 216-4 at that stage. Compton then got there in the final over of the innings – his third career List A century off 135 balls.
There was a stage with Evison in full flight when 300 looked very much on the cards.
But he fell to Leech as the score fell to 268-5 in the 48th, and Revis expertly limited the damage with his hat-trick.
It certainly wouldn’t have been lost on Revis that his middle victim was Stewart, the man who started Yorkshire’s slide out of the competition at Canterbury last year.
Needing six off the last ball of the match – against Revis’s bowling – Stewart hit a six over deep square-leg. It didn’t knock the Vikings out, but it was definitely a defining moment.
Today, Revis got his revenge with Wharton’s help, and Compton was later run out off the last ball of the innings.
After mid-innings rain, Yorkshire lost Fin Bean to Australian debutant Bazley’s seam with the fifth ball of their chase, Qadri taking a sharp catch at point.
But the Vikings, either side of another brief stoppage, were recovering through wicketkeeper opener Harry Duke and his captain Shan Masood, who put on 49 to take the score to 52-1 after 10 overs.
Masood, back from Test duty with Pakistan, was playing confidently for 31. However he was run out by an Evison direct hit at the non-striker’s end from mid-on with the first ball of the 11th over.
More rain arrived moments later, and when play resumed the required rate was almost 10 runs per over.
With the threat of more rain to come, Hill crashed the lion’s share of 21 off a Matthew Parkinson over. Both he and Will Fraine hit sixes, but Hill fell caught behind for 35 off Bazley to leave Yorkshire agonisingly short of victory.
Picture by Allan McKenzie/SWpix.com – 01/08/2023. A Yorkshire fan sports today’s retro kit.
