Yorkshire's Bowling Attack Builds on Bairstow's Brilliance

Yorkshire beat Lancashire by 106 runs in the T20 Vitality Blast at Headingley

Yorkshire started fast in bat, with Adam Lyth hitting 20 runs off 7 balls before being caught in the deep by Ben McDermot off the bowling of Tom Aspinwall. The captain, Johnny Bairstow accelerated to 50 from 32 balls and finished at 73 off 44 balls. Alongside some quick ones and twos, there was of course some big hitting from him. By the 9th over he was playing pretty much everything, hitting two scoops for 4. At one point it seemed that he could not be out, with one shot in the eleventh over somehow landing between 4 fielders. When he was eventually caught on the boundary by Joe Moores, a decision confirmed after more than a minute of video review (to see if the assist fielder had his foot on the boundary), there was a very brief period where a batting collapse looked possible. 

Will Luxton, who had hit some particularly high 6s onto the leg side, went less than six balls after Bairstow, caught by Ben McDermot off the bowling of Tom Hartley for 34. Hartley then took the wicket of Moeen Ali in the same over, to make the score 137 for 3. Despite a few quick wickets, no more fell until the eighteenth over, with Revis (23) and Faheem Ashraf (0) both caught off the bowling of Aspinwall. Revis’ Wharton’s contributions Yorkshire reached up 192 with two overs remaining. They then finished on 213 for 7 with batter number eight, Andrew Tye making a valuable contribution of 16 off 8 balls, before going LBW to Saqib Mahmood in at number 9. Hassan Ali then hit a 4 off the final ball of the innings, and the only one he faced.

Adam Lyth hits a six.

Starting as they meant to go on in the second innings, the Yorkshire bowlers took a wicket in the first three consecutive overs. First, Keaton Jennings was bowled by a particularly pumped-up Hassan Ali for 1; second, Matty Hurst was bowled by Faheem Ashraf for 2; and thirdly, Marcus Harris was bowled by Moeen Ali for 14. With the fall of the third wicket, the score was 27. Things did not dramatically improve for Lancashire, although, for as long as Liam Livinston was in there was hope for the visitors. While those in at five and six were out for 16 and 6 respectively, Livingston started to build a strong innings, with huge shots forcing the crowd to keep their wits about them. 

When Livingston was caught by Dom Bess, off the bowling of Andrew Tye for 44, Yorkshire’s victory became inevitable. At 99 for 7 in the thirteenth over there was only so much the Lancashire tail could do. The spin of Moeen Ali and Jafer Chohan finished things off and Yorkshire had won by 106 runs in the fifteenth over. Bairstow will now be hoping that his side can build on their dominant position in the northern group of the Vitality Blast, where they have won 4 of 5 matches (two more than Derbyshire in second).