Yorkshire Vikings upset Notts Outlaws by defeating them by an eight-run lead in the Vitality Blast at Trent Bridge because of Dawid Malan’s 95 off 56 balls and skipper Shan Masood‘s 34 off 23, giving them their first victory of the 2023 season and their first in any format since August 2022.
Although Alex Hales scored a half-century for the second night in a row and Colin Munro made 46 off 41, Yorkshire’s 182 for 7 after choosing to bat first proved to be sufficient as David Wiese grabbed 2 for 32 for the visitors, who recorded their first T20 victory at this venue since 2015.
“There were a lot of nerves at the end but Jordan Thompson bowled a fantastic last over to get us over the line,” Ottis Gibson, Yorkshire’s coach, said. “We have been struggling a bit for wins without playing as badly as the results might suggest and and we are hoping the confidence the players draw from that will set us up nicely for another big game, a Roses game, on Thursday night.
“When you win the toss and bat, you need someone to bat through the innings for you and Malan is one of the best in England and played a really good innings. We had spoken about needing one of the top four to bat through the innings and he took it upon himself to do that tonight.”
Three frontline bowlers (Jake Ball, Luke Fletcher, and Olly Stone) are now out with injuries, which has a negative impact on the home team. Jack Brooks, on loan from Somerset, grabbed four wickets on his Outlaws debut, although at a cost of 51 runs.
Yorkshire scored a modest 41 for 2 in the powerplay before losing two wickets in the space of four deliveries in the sixth over.
Adam Lyth and Will Luxton both left the field in a similar fashion, attempting to hit the ball over the infield but only succeeding in launching it vertically. Matt Carter and Colin Munro, respectively, combined safe hands with a steady eye as Brooks celebrated his first two wickets.
The right-arm seamer, who will turn 39 on the following Sunday, had watched his first over against his former county go for 17 runs as Malan and Lyth went on the attack, so it was understandable why the celebrations for his wickets were so heated.
Masood joined Dawid Malan in scoring 50 runs in 35 balls, but the Pakistani international holed out to Lyndon James on the leg-side boundary after having cleared the rope a few balls earlier.
Malan wasted a couple scoring opportunities but lost a partner when Wiese picked out a long-off, giving seasoned spinner Samit Patel his 200th T20 wicket for the Outlaws. Yorkshire needed some speed at 122 for 4 from 15, so they needed to get going.
It occurred in the final three overs, which also had two deadly errors from Brooks and one from Shaheen Shah Afridi, but also featured a tenacious 15 in six balls from Ben Mike and 17 from the final Brooks over, which included a fourth six for Malan that barely cleared the long-off fielder.
After losing Joe Clarke to a steepling top edge in the second over, the Outlaws were only slightly ahead at 48 from the powerplay.
Despite being slightly off the pace at 78 for 1 from 10, the second-wicket pair were still together, with Hales reaching 50 from 30 balls with his eighth boundary. Munro, however, had a narrow escape at 24 when his pull fell just short of deep backward square.
That changed in the 13th over when Wiese was edged by Hales directly into Luxton’s hands at backward point. Despite the fact that he and Munro had combined 84, the Outlaws still needed 84 from 47 balls and needed to keep going.
For their benefit, Montgomery quickly got going. He struck a few of shaky boundaries before hitting a crisp six into the Fox Round standoff Dom Bess. However, the strain was still there when 54 was needed to begin the final five overs, and it increased even more when Munro holed out to long-on.
Every subsequent dot ball turned the screw on the Outlaws, who suffered another blow when Montgomery hit Mike straight to extra cover, though with 26 still needed from just eight balls the game by that point was effectively won. The loss of the big-hitting left-hander in a tight over from Jordan Thompson turned out to be a crucial scalp for the Vikings.
