It is time to vote for your NIC Player of the Month for July. Here are the four Yorkshire players up for last month’s accolade…
Dom Bess
The off-spinner claimed nine wickets in the LV= Insurance County Championship win over Northamptonshire at Wantage Road, building on some excellent performances in the Vitality Blast through June.
His nine wickets against Northants included a superb career best 7-43 in the first innings.
It was a performance which helped him regain his place in England’s Test squad for the forthcoming five-match series against India, which starts this week.
Harry Brook
A fabulous start to the month saw the Burley batsman post an unbeaten 91 in Vitality Blast Roses win at Emerald Headingley, taking his competition average at the time to a staggering 115.75 from 10 innings and his runs tally to 463 – better than anyone else in the Blast.
The 22-year-old then followed that with a brilliant century in the LV= Insurance County Championship win over Northamptonshire at Wantage Road. His 113 came in the second innings of a low-scoring game played out on a tricky pitch and enabled the White Rose to bounce back from being bowled out for 158 in the first innings.
Harry Duke
The 19-year-old wicketkeeper-batsman scored a sensational 125 off 130 balls opening the batting in the Royal London Cup win over Leicestershire at Grace Road on July 25.
Duke, aged 19 years and 322 days, became the second youngest List A centurion for Yorkshire behind a certain Sachin Tendulkar, who did it aged 19 years and 100 days in 1992.
Much more importantly, Duke’s innings led to an impressive Vikings victory as they chased down a target of 328 to win.
Duke also made his Vitality Blast debut at the start of the month in the Roses win at Emerald Headingley and also scored a one-day friendly fifty against Northumberland at Scarborough later in the month.
George Hill
The 20-year-old all-rounder played two innings of particular note.
Elevated to open the batting in the LV= Insurance County Championship win over Northamptonshire at Wantage Road, he hit a composed, career best 71 in the first innings.
The last time he could remember opening the batting was in schools cricket. But he looked every inch an opener in this knock as he helped cover the losses of injured Will Fraine and Tom Kohler-Cadmore.
Then, in the Royal London Cup win over Leicestershire at Grace Road late in the month he hit an excellent unbeaten 90 batting at number four, sharing 172 for the third wicket with centurion Harry Duke – also his career best score in that format.
The NIC Player of the Month – June
With nearly 80% of the votes, June’s NIC Player of the Month was Harry Brook. The batsman beat Jordan Thompson, Dom Bess and Jonny Bairstow to earn last month’s accolade.
