Bairstow Blasts Durham Into Oblivion

While Joe Root has been shining for England in the last few months, Jonny Bairstow has had to make do with county cricket. The red-haired prodigy however has made the absolute most of his relegation from test cricket, and on Friday night he produced yet another sparkling performance that almost single-handedly rescued a perilous situation for the Vikings, transforming a crisis into a procession towards victory.

Young Bairstow can scarcely put a foot wrong at the moment, although he was ably supported by the other two members of Yorkshire's red-hot batting triumvirate, namely the steady Jack Leaning and the belligerent Tim Bresnan, with the latter proving to be a real dark horse with bat in hand this summer. One would have obtained very long odds on Yorkshire's three most successful batsmen of 2015 being Bairstow, Bresnan, and Leaning, but thus far this is how the season is unfolding.

Meanwhile, the top-order trinity of Finch, Gale, and Maxwell yet again failed to put the scorer to too much trouble, which was most thoughtful of them. Equally, the recalled Alex Lees has been a shadow of the gent who produced fine limited-overs contributions last summer. However, of perhaps more pressing concern is the home team's bowling attack. Admittedly, most bowling units are being heavily punished in these changing times, but Yorkshire's inability to restrict their opponents from heavy-scoring is leaving the batsmen with a mountain to climb. This time the culprits were the trio of Finch, Fisher, and young Josh Shaw who between them conceded 110 runs from nine overs. Of course the mountain becomes even more problematic when the top order continues to underperform. Quite frankly, it cannot be left to Bairstow, Bresnan, and Leaning to bail out the Vikings time and again.

This remarkable and most unlikely runs chase against Durham is the first of four fixtures in the next week in the Twenty20 Blast. The Vikings had to win at least three of those four engagements, and with belligerent Bairstow getting his team out of jail, the Vikings are still in with a shout of ascending their northern group and shoving their way into the door of the last eight. After last night's improbable triumph, perhaps anything is possible.

YORKSHIRE VIKINGS versus Durham Jets; at Leeds; Friday the 10th of July 2015. Durham Jets won the toss.

Durham Jets: 191 for six (off twenty overs)

Mustard c Leaning b Maxwell 4 (4-1)

Stoneman c Bresnan b Maxwell 1 (11-2)

Clark not out 91

Collingwood c Bresnan b Rhodes 5 (39-3)

Richardson c and b Rashid 8 (49-4)

Muchall st Bairstow b Rashid 18 (105-5)

Arshad c Bairstow b Fisher 10 (134-6)

Hastings not out 43

Extras: 11

YORKSHIRE VIKINGS: 194 for five (off 18.5 overs)

Finch c Borthwick b Hastings 0 (0-1)

Gale c Mustard b Hastings 9 (10-2)

Lees c Mustard b Arshad 7 (28-3)

Bairstow c Collingwood b Arshad 92 (163-5)

Maxwell b Borthwick 16 (66-4)

Leaning not out 39

Bresnan not out 24

Extras: 7

YORKSHIRE VIKINGS win by five wickets. YORKSHIRE VIKINGS two points, Durham Jets no points.

CURRENT GROUP STANDINGS:

Warwickshire - eighteen points from eleven matches

Worcestershire - fourteen points from eleven matches

Lancashire - twelve points from eleven matches

Northamptonshire - eleven points from ten matches

Durham - ten points from twelve matches

Nottinghamshire - ten points from eleven matches

Leicestershire - ten points from twelve matches

YORKSHIRE - nine points from ten matches

Derbyshire - six points from twelve matches

BEST BOWLERS (minimum criteria of ten wickets)

Maxwell - 18.18; eleven wickets; best bowling: 3-15

Fisher - 22.18; eleven wickets; best bowling: 5-22

No other Viking has even managed to take ten wickets.....yet.

BATSMEN (minimum criteria of one hundred runs)

Bresnan - 49; 147 runs; highest score: 51

Leaning - 42.8; 214 runs; highest score: 48 not out

Bairstow - 39; 2731 runs; highest score: 92

Gale - 28.78; 259 runs; highest score: 68 not out

Maxwell - 20.88; 167 runs; highest score: 92 not out