Yorkshire Vikings v Derbyshire Falcons at Headingley T Blast

Neil Whitaker reports

YORKSHIRE  Vikings beat the Derbyshire Falcons by nine wickets  at Headingley with 11 balls to spare.

They were guided to victory by opener Adam Lyth who hit 84 and passed 4,500 runs in T20 cricket.  He also shared in a record Vikings first wicket stand of 137 with Dawid Malan.  As all good batters he did have slices of luck and was dropped twice. On 27 he was dropped by Samitt Patel at cover off  Alex Thomson. He had his second piece of luck on 74 when he placed Daryn Dupavillon chest high but Pat Brown on the point boundary couldn’t take the chance.

Lyth said: “I am very pleased with the record and hope that there’s more runs  to come and as long as I can I will keep playing and get a few more runs.  In our bowling power play things didn’t quite go as planned but I thought our bowlers did well to restrict them to 179.  With the bat we got off to a fantastic start.  I was disappointed to get out at 84 because I wanted to get a hundred but if you had offered me 84 before the start of play I would have taken it.  It was a fantastic win.”

He gently placed Dupavillo  over the point boundary into the East stand when he moved to the Kirkstall road end Lyth lofted him over two fielders for a one bounce four.  He smashed Zak Chappell over the mid wicket boundary for a six and two balls later he drilled Chappell to the cover boundary.

Lyth reached his fifty from 33 balls and included four fours and three sixes.  He effortlessly swept Alex Thomson for a six over the mid wicket boundary into the East stand. 

The Falcons  finally got Lyth when he got an outside edge to a drive  and Cam Fletcher running in from the long on boundary dived forward to take the catch.

Very much the silent partner Malan slowly but surely he gathered runs he brutally smashed Patel over the long on boundary for a six. His fifty came from 37 balls with four fours and two sixes.  But after the departure of Lyth, Malan came into his own and runs came at ease. He hit a straight six off Patel and Joe Root repeated the same shot with same outcome of the first ball of the next over

It all looked so different for the Falcons when openers Aneurin  Donald and David Lloyd powered their way to 70 without loss in their power play.  Donald went on to  hit his highest Vitality T20 score of 84 but their final score of 179 was shorter than they were expecting at the halfway stage of their innings.

Put into bat Donald hit Revis for 16 off three balls with two sixes and a four.  His second six was a massive hit over square leg into the East stand.  In their powerplay Donald and Lloyd added 70.

Donald hit the fastest  fifty for the Falcons in T20 cricket off 19 balls, the previous was 20 jointly held by Wes Durston and Leus  Du Plooy

On 73 Donald clipped Bess off his toes and the ball went high in the sky but fell between three advancing Vikings. Donald  managed to squeeze Cliff out of the block hole and seemed to be adding to his six count but found Thompson on the point boundary edge with only inches to spare. His 84 was Donald’s highest T20 score and it came 41 balls with eight fours and four sixes.

Donald said: “We were pleased with the start but in the end we were 20 short and we should have got 200 but we left our bowlers with too much to do. The Vikings have got four world  class batters so we needed to put runs on the board with a quick outfield and a shorter boundary.  The Vikings  batted beautifully but we feel that we messed up more than they played well.  We were so proud with our victory the other day over Notts Outlaws and we saw how much it meant to Derbyshire cricket

In our earlier games I felt that  that I have underperformed and I hope to put that right in the next few games.”

His opening partner Lloyd should have been on his way back to the hutch on 10 when he cut Ben Cliff and the ball went through the hands of Josh Wharton at cover.  A push by Lloyd off Dan Moriarty for a single to mid-on brought up the hundred partnership in the ninth over.

He swung Jordan Thompson off his pads but the ball went straight to Matt Revis on the mid wicket boundary. Their 114 was the  highest opening partnership for the Falcons against the Vikings in T20 cricket.

Wayne Madsen seamed out of sorts and tried reverse sweeping Dom  Bess but missed the ball and was bowled.   Patel top edged a cut off Revis to Lyth at short third man.

Russ Whiteley top edged a sweep off Root and found Moriarty on the fine leg boundary.  Root got his second wicket in the final over  when Brooke Guest tried to hit him out of the ground but found that man Thompson on the mid wicket boundary.

Before the match a minute's silence was held before the match in memory of Rugby League legend Rob Burrow who died at the beginning of the week.

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