Another Brilliant Effort From The Vikings

The in-form Adil Rashid posted his best-ever bowling figures in a List A match as the Vikings of Yorkshire concluded their group commitments in the Royal London One-Day Cup with an emphatic conquest of a mediocre Hampshire. In fact, were it not for a brilliant innings from Jimmy Adams and two wickets in successive deliveries for the debutant Tom Barber, then the match would have been a virtual walkover.

By finishing top of Group A, with an impressive haul of six wins from eight outings, the Tykes are now guaranteed a home quarter final next week against either Durham or Warwickshire. Of course, as Tim Bresnan admitted earlier in the week, it wasn't vital for the Tykes to secure a home tie, as the team have proven to be more than comfortable playing away from home, as exemplified today. Furthermore, Brezza added that early starts at Headingley can be a lottery if there is cloud cover. Nevertheless, home comforts have been secured, but more importantly the feelgood factor in the camp has just been strongly reinforced as the first eleven prolongs its winning habit.

Whilst Rashid's exploits will steal the headlines (and rightly so), Jack Brooks also performed well, and although Steven Patterson could only account for one wicket, his six overs cost a miserly thirteen runs! Surprisingly it was the often reliable duo of Bresnan and Pyrah who provided the source of Hampshire's meagre ration of runs. As I have stated before, Adil Rashid is an expert at steamrollering his way through the puny defences of tailenders, and this was never more in evidence than today when he seized the last four wickets as the hosts collapsed from 161 for five to an inadequate 172 all out.

After the avalanche of wickets, Lees and Lyth made a good start and then the red-hot Williamson blasted the visitors to a position of total dominance at the lunch interval. However the Tykes have an awful habit of losing wickets immediately after the start of a new session, and so it came to pass that the New Zealander and his hapless captain were both caught behind off consecutive deliveries, thereby yielding Tom Barber a sniff at a hat trick. However, the returning Jonny Bairstow had already taken four catches. He now kept out the potential hat trick ball and then proceeded to a match-clinching 45 not out. JB was as responsible as anyone for the crushing victory. The same cannot be said however for the misfiring Gale. His captaincy input may be immense, but he is keeping Andrew Hodd out of a much more deserved place in the one-day team. If Gale had any integrity, he would stand aside, allow Hodd a merited recall as wicketkeeper, while keeping Bairstow as a specialist number four batsman. Regrettably Andrew Gale is a passenger in this strong team at present, and he is losing credibility with every failure.

Hampshire versus YORKSHIRE; at Southampton; Thursday 21st August. YORKSHIRE won the toss.

Hampshire: 172 off 39 overs (Adams 91*; Rashid 5-33, Brooks 3-30)

YORKSHIRE: 173 for four off 28.5 overs (Lees 61)

YORKSHIRE won by six wickets. Hampshire 0 points, YORKSHIRE 2 points.