Yorkshire slipped to their second Vitality Blast defeat in three days against Derbyshire at Emerald Headingley tonight as they fell a long way short of chasing 180 in 17 overs.
David Willey struck with the first ball of the match, but experienced Falcon Wayne Madsen was their star with a superb 66 off 28 balls to follow Saturday’s win at Chesterfield.
He underpinned their imposing 179-7, in which 21-year-old Jordan Thompson impressed for the hosts with 3-23 from three overs on his home debut.
Willey top-scored with 24 in a Yorkshire reply which never got going and slipped to 102 all out in 14 overs as they lost their last six wickets for eleven runs.
New Zealand overseas fast bowler Lockie Ferguson claimed 3-21 from three overs and Alex Hughes three for 12 in a 77-run win.
The Vikings, who elected to bowl first, have now won four and lost four of their eight North Group games ahead of tomorrow’s (TUESDAY) meeting with Leicestershire here.
The start of play was delayed by an hour until 7.30pm following approximately half an hour of heavy late afternoon rain.
And despite that early wicket from Willey, with Billy Godleman aiming a huge swipe, the Falcons raced out of the blocks through Wahab Riaz and Scotland international Calum MacLeod (28).
They shared 66 in 6.4 overs for the second wicket, with Riaz clubbing boundaries on both sides of the wicket in 42 off 30 balls.
After MacLeod holed out to deep mid-wicket off Thompson’s seamers in the seventh, Madsen came in and continued the onslaught.
In the eighth over, he launched Azeem Rafiq onto the top tier of the new North/South Stand, with the Falcons later reaching 100 in the 10th over.
Riaz holed out to deep mid-wicket off Rafiq (114-3 in the 12th over) before Madsen reverse swept him for six and reached 50 off 22 balls later in the over, including eight fours and two sixes.
Thompson then struck twice in the 14th over. He had Hardus Viljoen caught at short fine-leg pulling and Madsen caught at long-on two balls later as the score fell to 147-5.
They were two of three wickets in seven balls as Thompson then helped Rafiq get rid of Saturday’s villain as far as Yorkshire were concerned, Matt Critchley, with a catch at long-off.
Yorkshire then lost Adam Lyth, Tom Kohler-Cadmore and Kane Williamson inside the first six overs of their chase to slip to 42-3, with Ferguson removing the former two.
Kohler-Cadmore had smashed Ravi Rampaul over mid-wicket and cleared the West Stand before edging behind to Ferguson, with the Vikings quickly falling behind the rate.
When Ferguson had Gary Ballance caught at short fine-leg trying to scoop in the 10th over, Yorkshire were 67-4 needing 113 more.
Hughes later had Tim Bresnan caught behind and Thompson bowled in the 13th.
Derbyshire also have a won four and lost four record in the Blast, with this their fourth win on the spin.
This was only the Vikings third home defeat in the Blast since the start of 2016, with Derbyshire winning here for the second year running.
In fact, they have completed the double over Yorkshire for the last two seasons.
Ahead of tomorrow’s match (6.30pm), the Foxes have won three and lost four of their seven matches so far, including defeat last time out against Derbyshire at Grace Road on Friday.
What they said
Yorkshire’s Jordan Thompson
“For me, a positive has come out of it. But I’d rather come out with a win than take three wickets. We’ve just said in the dressing room that we were below par with the ball and then the bat. Yes, a disappointing night. We’ve lost two in two, but we’ll look to bounce back tomorrow.
“We’ve got to put this bed and come back tomorrow night against Leicester. We need to win and get back on track.
“We’ll look to do the things we’ve done well throughout the Blast. We have done some good things.”
Derbyshire’s Lockie Ferguson
“It was quite important after our batters batted so well to get early wickets. We struggled a bit in the first four games and didn’t really have a total to bowl to. Tonight, we were probably just a bit over par, which was excellent.
“With the attack we have, we have fast bowlers doing the job.
“It’s pleasing to get the result.
“I think 10 an over was par on that. It was a nice wicket, nice to bowl on with good carry.
“A lot of T20 campaigns I’ve played in, it’s not how you start it’s how you finish. Having said that, starting with four losses is never easy.
“We can take a bit of confidence from beating a quality Yorkshire side both at Chesterfield and here.”
