Yorkshire hold their nerve in final over drama to book finals day place in Blast

Yorkshire qualified for Finals day after a pulsating finish at the Kia Oval on Wednesday. Surrey were chasing 161 to win and had slumped to 91-5 before an explosive innings from Jamie Overton dragged the home side back into the contest and favourites for victory, but a superb last over from Jordan Thompson which yielded only three runs saw the visitors edge home by the slimmest of margins.

Surrey won the toss on a muggy night and elected to field. Their decision was rewarded instantly when Will Jacks struck with his third delivery in the opening over of the match when Adam Lyth chipped the ball straight to midwicket without scoring.

Worse was to follow for Yorkshire when Finn Allen(3) chipped Dan Worrall straight to short midwicket off the Australian’s third ball to leave Yorkshire 9-2 after only nine deliveries.

It was down to Tom Kohler—Cadmore and David Willey to repair the earlier damage, with the pair taking the score to 59-2 at the half way point with Kohler-Cadmore 34 not out.

The pair had put on 93 for the third wicket on a slow pitch when Willey(30) perished in the deep of Narine in the 15^th over. Shortly afterwards Kohler-Cadmore was taken at long on for 62 which came off 48 balls to leave Yorkshire 108-4 in the 16^th over.

The visitors were indebted to Shadab Khan and Will Fraine who increased the scoring rate with a flurry of boundaries at the end of the innings with Khan(21) taken behind off Atkinson for his second wicket of the evening to finish with figures of 2-28 off his four overs.

Fraine’s bright and breezy cameo innings of 32 not out of 14 balls gave the visitors a total that gave them brief hope of defending as Yorkshire closed their twenty overs on 160-5.

In pursuit of 161 to win, Surrey lost Jacks(1) to Willey’s sixth delivery in the opening over when the opener sliced to third man.

After a tight opening three overs where Yorkshire conceded only 11 runs, Tom Curran and Rory Burns opened their shoulders with 22 runs coming of an over from Matt Revis.

The pair added a half century stand before Pakistani leg break bowler Shadab Khan struck in his second over when Burns(28) played all around a delivery that kept low.

Khan- who up until today- has had a disappointing Blast campaign, struck again when Pope(11) was caught at deep square leg.

Yorkshire’s skipper David Willey returned back into the attack and immediately had Curran(36) caught at fine leg to leave Surrey in a spot of bother at 84-4 in the 13^th over, still a further 77 away from winning with seven overs remaining.

Yorkshire by now were beginning to turn the screw with Bess having Hardie(3) caught in the deep.

The home side went into the final five overs requiring over 11 an over to win. Back to back sixes from Jamie Overton off the expensive Revis who went for  runs off his four overs, reduced the target down to 44 needed of the last four overs.

From a position of going on to winning the game, Yorkshire’s bowling floundered in the final few overs with Evans- who was dropped on 18 and Overton edging Surrey closer to their target.

The returning Revis who had bowled three overs for 39 came back for his final over which was looking like a tight one right at the death before Evans hit a maximum off the final ball to leave Surrey five to win off the final over bowled by Jordan Thompson.

The first ball was  a dot ball. Overton took a single off the second, with Evans also picking up a single. Three were required from three balls when Overton was run out with a direct hit from Kohler- Cadmore behind the stumps for a superb 40 coming off just 21 balls.

Next delivery  Narine(0) fell first ball after perishing in the deep to a fine low catch from  Fraine to leave Atkinson to face one ball with three to win.

Thompson held his nerve, with a delivery that went for just a bye as Yorkshire squeezed home by the narrow margin of one run to book their place in Finals day next weekend.

Surrey     vs    Yorkshire Vikings

                                          Yorkshire Vikings 160-5 (20)   Surrey  159-7 (20)

                                                      Yorkshire beat Surrey by one run

                           Vitality Blast T20 Quarter-Final Wednesday 6^th July 2022

                                    Peter Moore at the Kia Oval

Follow us on Twitter @ProstInt

[columns]

[column size=”1/2″][blog type=”timeline” posts=”10″ cats=”1827″ heading=”Blast” heading_type=”timeline” /][/column]

[column size=”1/2″][blog type=”timeline” posts=”10″ cats=”1072″ heading=”News” heading_type=”timeline” /][/column]

[/columns]