Yorkshire Vikings v Worcestershire Rapids
Vitality Blast, North Group
Thursday May 30, 2024, 6.30pm
Headingley
Toss: Worcestershire won the toss and elected to bat.
Vikings: Adam Lyth, Dawid Malan, Shan Masood c, Joe Root, Donovan Ferreira w, Jordan Thompson, Matthew Revis, Dom Bess, Jafer Chohan, Dom Leech, Dan Moriarty.
Rapids: Brett D’Oliveira c, Matthew Waite, Josh Cobb, Adam Hose, Ethan Brookes, Tom Taylor, Nathan Smith, Ed Pollock, Hayden Walsh, Gareth Roderick w, Adam Finch.
Match summary: Yorkshire are up and running in this season’s Blast and claimed their first win of the season in all cricket along the way, as Dan Moriarty’s career best four wickets set up a demolition of Worcestershire, who were bowled out for just 101 inside 16 overs in a home win by eight wickets.
Left-arm spinner Moriarty claimed 4-25 from four overs on his T20 debut for a Vikings side who claimed seven wickets with spin.
The hosts then had no trouble with the bat in front of an 8,231 crowd as opener Adam Lyth top-scored with 55 not out off 33 balls, including nine fours. The win was sealed with 50 balls remaining.
Picture by Alex Whitehead/SWpix.com. Adam Lyth celebrates his half-century, and with it came a fabulous opening night win.
Report: Things could hardly have gone better for Yorkshire. When coaches and players talk about searching for the perfect performance, this wasn’t far off it with the ball and in the field.
The Vikings dominated from the off. Dom Leech struck four balls into proceedings when he bowled Brett D’Oliveira on the scoop before Dan Moriarty got to work in only his second T20 appearance since 2022.
Moriarty, a winter signing from Surrey, only played one Blast game last season. That was Surrey’s quarter-final win at Lancashire when he claimed the wicket of England white ball captain Jos Buttler.
Here, he had ex-Viking Matthew Waite stumped in the next over and debutant Josh Cobb caught at deep midwicket in the fourth – 15-3 – before returning to get Tom Taylor caught behind, leaving the Rapids 33 for five in the seventh. He later bowled Nathan Smith.
Leech also struck twice, as did off-spinner Dom Bess.
His contribution was key as he stymied a Worcestershire recovery.
Picture by Alex Whitehead/SWpix.com. Dan Moriarty celebrates with Jordan Thompson after taking the wicket of Worcestershire’s Matthew Waite.
Only two of their batters, T20 debutant all-rounder Ethan Brookes and wicketkeeper Gareth Roderick, reached double figures on a pitch showing signs of turn.
They came together at 49-6 in the ninth over and shared 43. Brookes was inventive for 42 off 32 balls and Roderick added 25.
Yorkshire’s seam bowling injury issues meant they went with a spin dominated attack, and Bess and Jafer Chohan also struck.
But both Brookes and Roderick were caught at cover off Bess’s off-spin in the 14th over, Worcestershire now 95 for eight. From there, there was little hope for the visitors.
Leg-spinner Chohan then had Hayden Walsh Junior caught at long-on and Ed Pollock was run out to wrap up the innings.
Adam Lyth and Dawid Malan then set the platform for a routine chase, sharing 43 inside five overs, including the latter’s 25.
Picture by Alex Whitehead/SWpix.com. Shan Masood at the toss this evening.
He was caught at short third off Adam Finch’s seam before Shan Masood, fit after suffering a wrist injury at Northampton on Sunday, was caught at long-on off Cobb’s off-spin in the seventh – 51-2.
But it mattered little.
Lyth found a partner in Joe Root, and they eased Yorkshire over the line.
Root finished 13 not out, with Lyth reached his fifty off 31 balls, hit the winning runs and dominated an unbeaten half-century stand.
Magic moment: Things started brilliantly for Yorkshire, with a wicket as early as the fourth ball when Dom Leech bowled Worcestershire’s scooping captain Brett D’Oliveira. It set the tone perfectly for a thumping win.
Turning point: Worcestershire fell to 15-3 inside the first 20 balls of the match, with Dom Leech and Dan Moriarty – the latter twice – striking. The Rapids just couldn’t recover.
Picture by Alex Whitehead/SWpix.com. Dom Leech celebrates with Donovan Ferreira after taking an early wicket.
Stat of the match: Jordan Thompson made his 100th career T20 appearance. The all-rounder debuted for Yorkshire in 2018 and has since played in domestic competitions in Australia, Pakistan and Dubai, added to the Hundred.
What they said – Dan Moriarty: “An exciting start to the competition! It was nice to get a win on the board with a good team performance, and hopefully there’s more exciting cricket to come.
“We were unsure about the wicket, to be honest. But we felt it was quite slow and held up a bit, which suited our attack really nicely. Obviously, having the spin triplets (himself, Bess, Chohan), it was nice to go out there and work together and bounce ideas off each other and work out how we wanted to go about it. It worked out really nicely.
“The way our squad marries up to the cricket we want to play, we’ve got three spinners who are very useful in white ball cricket. It makes sense to utilise that. We play half our games away, so we’ll have to reassess as we go. But I’d like to think that was quite a nice blueprint for us.
“It was frustrating last year not playing a lot of T20 cricket, and I missed it – I really did. I enjoyed being out there today. Hopefully I can get a string of games and put in some more performances for Yorkshire.”
What’s next: Yorkshire are back in action within 24 hours. They travel to the Uptonsteel County Ground, Grace Road, tomorrow to face Leicestershire Foxes, starting at 6.30pm. It marks the home side’s opening North Group fixture.
Picture by Alex Whitehead/SWpix.com. Joe Root and new signing Donovan Ferreira.
