Yorkshire v Durham
Vitality Blast, North Group
Friday June 3, 2022, 6.30pm
Headingley
Toss: Durham won it and elected to bat
Teams: Yorkshire – Lyth, Allen, Willey c, Brook, Fraine, Tattersall w, Thompson, Drakes, Revis, Bess, Rashid.
Durham – Clark, Jones, Robinson w, Bedingham, Coughlin, Carse, Eckersley, Raine, Tye, Trevaskis c, Drissell.
Match summary: Headingley witnessed one of its greatest T20 nights as Yorkshire sealed a record chase of 208 with a significant deal of comfort, beating Durham by six wickets with 2.2 overs to spare.
Opener Adam Lyth stood out with 77 off 33 balls as the Vikings recovered from back-to-back home defeats to Leicestershire and Derbyshire earlier this week, winning their second game in five at the start of the North Group campaign.
Captain David Willey was also fabulous with the bat, dotting the i’s and crossing the t’s on victory with a destructive 75 not out off 39.
Durham had posted 207-8 thanks to half-centuries for Graham Clark and Ollie Robinson, but Jordan Thompson’s career best 4-32 late in the visiting innings was crucial in kick-starting an exhilarating fightback.
Report: An aggregate of 417 runs were scored on a night which evoked memories of the stunning victory over Northamptonshire here in 2017 when Adam Lyth smashed a record-breaking 161.
Yorkshire secured their second win in five group games to bounce back from successive home defeats against Leicestershire and Derbyshire here earlier this week.
Graham Clark and Ollie Robinson hit 65 off 37 balls and a career best 56 off 34 respectively, as they shared 92 for the second wicket to advance from 34-1 in the fourth over.
Though they could have been run out, both played aggressively and nicely and shared three sixes.
This was a nice in which the two Vikings debutants enjoyed success. West Indian international Dominic Drakes claimed two wickets and a catch and bowled nicely for 2-43 in batter-friendly conditions.
He had key man Clark caught at deep cover – 126-2 after 12 overs – before returning to get Paul Coughlin caught at short fine-leg.
Yorkshire’s key man with the ball, however, was Thompson, who claimed all of his wickets from the 15th over onwards.
He uprooted Robinson’s leg-stump as he shuffled across and played to leg – 148-4 at the start of the 15th – before getting Brydon Carse caught at deep cover at the end of the next.
Carse had hit Matthew Revis for a big six into the top tier of the Howard Stand and was brilliantly caught one-handed in the crowd.
In Thompson’s last over, the 19th, he had Durham captain Liam Trevaskis caught at short third and bowled Ned Eckersley off his pads as the score fell to 192-8.
Amazingly, Yorkshire gained control of the chase within only two overs – or so it felt, anyway – as Kiwi Allen smoked two sixes off Carse as the score moved to 24-0.
From there, the Vikings’ chase was like a freight train which couldn’t be stopped.
Allen (29 off 12), Lyth and Willey all hit three sixes apiece.
Lyth shared 54 for the first wicket with Allen inside four overs before the New Zealander holed out to mid-off against Andrew Tye and then 70 in six overs with Willey for the second.
Lyth was strong square on both sides of the wicket and whipped Coughlin for his first six, uppercut Carse and despatched Coughlin over long-on. He reached his fifty in 23 balls, a milestone Willey later reached in 27.
When Lyth miscued Ben Raine’s seam high to wide mid-off, leaving Yorkshire at 124-2 in the 10th over, there was little doubt which way this game was going.
Harry Brook fell for four on his return from England’s Test squad and Will Fraine for a 13-ball 22 in keeping with the night’s entertainment.
Willey hit all of his sixes over the leg-side – two off Trevaskis’ left-arm spin, including the winning blow early in the 18th over.
Magic moment: New Zealand debutant Finn Allen smashed Brydon Carse for back-to-back sixes at the end of the second over of Yorkshire’s chase, taking the score to 24-0. The first seared over long-on and the second was pulled into the Western Terrace.
Turning point: The 54-run opening partnership between Adam Lyth and Finn Allen, in only 3.5 overs, set the tone in the Vikings chase and left Durham on the ropes.
Stat of the match: Yorkshire’s previous highest successful chase was the 196 they reeled in to beat Derbyshire on this ground in a North Group tie in 2005.
Debutants: Both Yorkshire’s overseas debutants, Finn Allen and Dominic Drakes, had come into this game on the back of IPL campaigns in which they did not play a game but were excellent and key to the victory.
Drakes was first into the action, claiming an important 2-43 from four overs plus a smart catch at short third.
Finn Allen then blazed three sixes and two fours in 29 off 12 balls at the start of Yorkshire’s reply.
What they said – Captain David Willey: “It was a great pitch. For large parts, we did well with the ball and dragged it back through the middle quite nicely.
“Then, the intent Lythy and Finn showed at the top, it’s probably close to a perfect chase.
“If I have one criticism of us it is that when that ball traveled a bit in the first few overs, we went a little bit flat.
“We spoke before the game about the one thing we can control is our attitude and intensity out in the middle. We went a bit flat in the first few overs. Then, as we got a wicket and accepted it was going to be a high-scoring game, we picked it up.
“All in all, it was a decent performance.”
What’s next: Yorkshire have the weekend off before returning to Headingley to face 2020 champions Nottinghamshire on Monday evening (6.30pm) in the sixth North Group fixture of 14.
