Yorkshire Vikings v Lancashire Lighnings at Headingley June 20th T20 Blast

Neil Whitaker reports

YORKSHIRE Vikings bounced back after two defeats to beat  Roses rivals Lancashire Lightning by seven runs at Headingley.

Vikings captain Shan Masood said: “It was important that we bounced back after two defeats and we got a score above par. In the field we took some good catches and the boys did well to drag it back after the powerplay.”

But it  wouldn’t be a Roses match if there wasn’t a huge talking point, tonight’s  was can you be run out off a front foot no ball? 

The answer tonight was no.  The incident happened when Vikings captain Shan Masood and Joe Root were batting comfortably.   Shan Masood clipped a no ball on to his visor and stood on his stumps. He  was called through for a single by Root and was run out at the bowlers end  but the third umpire ruled that he was not out. Because under law 31.7 a batsman cannot be given out if he is under the impression that a front foot no ball has been given.

Shan Masood said: “I tried to play a ramp shot and the bat hit my grill and I was waiting for some treatment and Root said ‘A no  ball had been called and we waited for the umpires to make a decision and everybody moved on.”

Lightning captain Keaton Jennings said: “We felt they were trying to run and it was a  run out for me.  At the time he  was unaware of where he was.”

The Vikings failed to capitalise on Shan Masood’s good fortune because within two overs both he  and Root were back in the hutch. After adding 104 in 12 overs Root top edged a pull off Jack Blatherwick straight to George Lavelle at mid-on and Shan Masood tried  glancing Saqib Mahmood off his legs but he feathered it to stumper Matty  Hurst.

After their departures it was a procession of Viking batsmen from and to the hutch.  First Blatherwick got his second wicket when Donavan Ferreira top edged a pull to Luke Wells on the fine leg boundary then Chris Green yorked Matt  Revis for a duck.

Jordan Thompson made a sparky 22 before he was run out by a combination of Blatherwick and Hurst. He drilled Saqib Mahmood straight and had settled for a single but Dom Bess decided he wanted two and Thompson was run out by a mile.  Jafer Chohan backed away from Saqib Mahmood and lost his leg stump.

Batting after winning the toss the Vikings lost their first wicket in the second over when Aussie Green got a wicket with his first ball when he trapped Adam  Lyth on the crease and was leg before. Things got worse for the Vikings in the next over when Dawid Malan top edged a pull off Saqib Mahmood and Wells at mid wicket turned and caught the ball coming over his shoulder.

After struggling to find a boundary Shan Masood eventually did when he pulled George Balderson over the square leg boundary and two balls later he gracefully guided Balderson to the extra cover boundary.  If that was gracefully he ended the over by blasting Balderson to the extra cover boundary. He launched Blatherwick over long off and into the Howard stand for another six and  thrashed leg spinner Wells over ther long on boundary for a big six to bring up the hundred partnership with Root.

In their chase the Lightning lost an early wicket when Josh Bohannon got too far under a drive off Connor  McKerr and Lyth at mid-off took a steapling  catch.  His opening partner Wells danced down the pitch to Bess but played over the ball and was bowled.

Jennings hit four consecutive fours off McKerr’s second over and looked set to hit a big score but he fell fourt short off another fifty when he went back to Bess and pulled him straight to Revis on the mid-wicket boundary.

Hurst tried to reverse sweep Dan  Moriarty but missed the ball and was plumb leg before.  In the next over George Lavelle chipped Jafer Chohan back to the bowler who dived forward to take the catch.

Balderson and the veteran Steven Croft brought the Lightning back into the game but after adding 36 in five overs Balderson had a big hack at and was bowled.  Thompson came back into the attack and sent Green’s off stump cartwheeling out of the ground. With 20 needed of the final over Croft was yorked by Thompson.

SCORECARD