Yorkshire made the ideal start to their Vitality Blast North Group campaign as they hammered Durham at Emerald Headingley by 44 runs.
The Vikings posted 200-3 against a Jets side including England’s Ben Stokes, although the all-rounder did not bowl as he recovers from a hamstring tear.
Adam Lyth and Jonny Tattersall were Yorkshire’s stars with the bat, posting 92 not out off 54 balls and 53 not out off 27.
They shared an unbroken 110 in the final 8.5 overs to give the innings a lift from 90-3 early in the 12th after Harry Brook had impressed with 44.
Both Tattersall and Brook were making their T20 debuts.
Jack Brooks then helped the hosts get off to a flyer with the ball as he struck twice in the fourth over to reduce Durham to 13-2 and finished with an excellent 3-21 from four overs on his first T20 appearance in three years.
Stokes opened the batting and made 90 not out off 68 balls in Durham’s 156-4.
Having been invited to bat, Yorkshire lost Tom Kohler-Cadmore cheaply as he fell caught at mid-wicket off a top-edged pull against Chris Rushworth, leaving the score at 9-1.
Lyth took his time to get going, but Brook settled quickly as they shared 81 in nine overs.
Brook hit two pulled sixes in his 36-ball stay on a typically good Headingley track before holing out to long-on off the leg-spin of South Africa’s Imran Tahir.
That was the first of two wickets in two balls for the Jets as, at the start of the next over – the 12th, Gary Ballance was superbly caught by a diving Tom Latham at cover for a golden duck following a leading edge at Ryan Pringle’s off-spin.
That left Yorkshire at 90-3, with their innings in the balance.
But Tattersall came in and continued his excellent start to life as a first-team cricketer.
He may not have cleared the boundary, but he hit the gaps with plenty of innovation and scampered well between the wickets in reaching 50 off 26 balls.
He dominated the early stages of his partnership with Lyth, who had 39 when the wicketkeeper arrived at the crease. When Lyth reached 50, Tattersall was 37.
But Lyth put his foot down in the closing stages of the innings and threatened a second successive T20 century on this ground. At the start of the last over, he needed 13, although he just did not get enough strike.
Not that it mattered as Yorkshire had enough runs on the board.
Brooks and Tim Bresnan tied Stokes down in the early stages of the Durham chase, with him taking 16 balls to reach four.
And by that time, Brooks had removed Graham Clark and Paul Collingwood – caught at deep mid-wicket and lbw, the latter for a golden duck.
From there, Durham never looked like turning the game around, even if Stokes found a better rhythm without looking completely 100 percent fit.
The visitors reached halfway at 59-3, with Steve Patterson removing his opposite number Latham.
Brooks later removed Will Smith, caught at deep mid-wicket.
Stokes was very much in the stand and deliver mould in the closing stages of the match as he hit eight fours and five sixes.
Yorkshire’s next match is against Birmingham Bears at Edgbaston on Sunday.
