Shan Masood and Dom Bess were amongst a number of key contributors as Yorkshire claimed a hugely entertaining 49-run victory over Sussex Sharks at York in the Metro Bank One-Day Cup.
The Vikings won their second game in three in Group B as they defended a 262 target, bowling Sussex out for 212 in 44 overs.
This may not have been a last-ball nail biter like last season’s one-wicket win against Surrey was, but the pendulum swung back and forth to ensure they 3,417 crowd were glued to the action on a glorious day in the Minster City.
Yorkshire, inserted, were bowled out for 261 in the 50th over. Captain Masood top-scored with 63 off 79 balls, while Dom Bess’s 37 preceded two wickets in a successful defence.
Ben Coad and Dan Moriarty struck twice apiece, added to two run outs which indicated a sharp fielding display to inflict a third successive defeat on the Hove side.
Masood was supported by a quartet of scores in the late thirties from Fin Bean and Bess with 37 apiece and James Wharton and Harry Duke with 38 each.
Picture by John Clifton/SWpix.com. Dom Bess, alongside Shan Masood, was a standout performer with bat and ball today.
That a number of players got starts and were unable to go big, including Masood, indicated that the pitch wasn’t a batter’s paradise.
Sussex were led by four wickets for seamer Henry Crocombe, who returned 4-47 from 9.4 overs, including three wickets at the end of the innings. Two came in the final over.
The Vikings had to recover from 2-1 after six balls when Ari Karvelas bowled Will Luxton with one angled in which the opener tried to play to leg.
But they did so through Masood’s pair of half-century partnerships for the second and third wicket – 51 and 60 – with Bean and Wharton as they took the score to 113-3 after 25 overs.
Every batter who got in played confidently. Masood hoisted off-spinner Bertie Foreman’s over long-on for his only six, added to three boundaries, and was well caught in the crowd.
Unfortunately, Yorkshire’s acceleration was limited by the loss of wickets at key times.
Picture by John Clifton/SWpix.com. Fin Bean was playing on his home ground at York.
When Masood, having reached a 68-ball fifty, fell having been run out at the striker’s end coming back for two to deep backward square-leg, Yorkshire were 170 for five in the 36th over.
Earlier, Bean had been caught behind off Karvelas, Wharton miscued the excellent seam of Danial Ibrahim (1-29 from 10 overs) and George Hill did the same, albeit on the pull and not drive, to mid-on off left-arm seamer Jack Campbell.
Matthew Revis pulled Crocombe to deep mid-wicket – 189-6 in the 40th over – before Duke and Bess batted positively amidst a seventh-wicket partnership of 61.
The Vikings then lost four wickets inside the final three overs of the innings. Crocombe bowled Duke and before getting Moriarty and Coad caught. Bess was also run out as one of three wickets in the final over.
But wickets continued to fall, with Coad bowling Henry Rogers for a duck after Tom Haines had been run out at the striker’s end by a direct hit from Luxton at backward point. Inside seven overs, Sussex were 23-2.
Then came a Sussex fightback, as captain and opener Tom Clark and wicketkeeper-batter Charlie Tear added a dynamic 95 stand inside 17 overs for the third wicket.
Picture by John Clifton/SWpix.com. Dan Moriarty is congratulated by fellow wicket-taker Matthew Revis after one of his two wickets.
Clark led the way and reached his fifty off 58 balls with a six over deep square-leg off Bess in his first competitive captaincy debut with John Simpson rested.
However, Bess would gain revenge not too long afterwards, and it proved a game-changing intervention.
In successive overs from the City End, he had a sweeping Tear caught at deep backward square-leg for 43 and then Clark caught at cover as Sussex slipped to 123 for four in the 25th over.
Oli Carter and Zach Lion-Cachet steadied by adding 37 for the fifth wicket, but it didn’t really feel like a threatening passage of play, and that theory was strengthened when the latter was caught behind off Coad in the 32nd over, 160-5.
And when Moriarty trapped Ibrahim in the next, the Sharks were 161-6.
Oli Carter played nicely for 43, but he couldn’t provide the dynamism the Sharks required. And when he tried, he holed out to deep square-leg off Moriarty, leaving the score 198-7 in the 42nd.
Picture by John Clifton/SWpix.com. Dom Bess bowls against Sussex today.
Revis, Hill and another run out followed as Yorkshire triumphed.
The run out saw Hill deflect a Crocombe drive onto the stumps at the non-striker’s end to run out Karvelas.
