Adam Hose and Ed Pollock seal chase with 69 balls to spare as Blast records tumble
Birmingham Bears 86 for 0 (Hose 46*) beat Yorkshire 81 (Brathwaite 3-7, Miles 3-19) by 10 wickets
Birmingham Bears inflicted a crushing defeat on Yorkshire to move back into the top four of the North Group of the Vitality Blast.
After bowling out Yorkshire for the lowest score in their T20 history – 81 – Birmingham galloped to a 10-wicket victory with 69 deliveries to spare. It was the first time they had inflicted a 10-wicket defeat on a side in this format. You could be forgiven for wondering if we really needed a shorter format.
There have only been nine lower scores in this competition’s history and Birmingham (or Warwickshire, as they were previously known) had never previously kept a side to less than 96. Yorkshire’s previous lowest total was 90 for 9 against Durham in 2009. This was the lowest score made in England in a T20 since 2016.
There was no sign of the carnage to come when Adam Lyth took 15 from the first over of the match. The manner in which he took Tim Bresnan for a six (a gorgeous drive over extra cover) and two fours suggested a total of 180 might be on the cards.
But once Lyth was out, to the ninth ball of the match, Yorkshire only hit only three more fours and a six in the rest of their innings. Only other man in the side managed to make double-figures and, after the fourth over, there were only two more fours.
There may be a temptation, in such circumstances, to question the surface. But while this pitch had been used for three previous T20 games (one women’s match and two men’s) it was blameless. Yes, there was a fraction of turn for Birmingham’s spinners, but the bounce appeared to be true and the pace pretty consistent. These hybrid pitches really are a godsend to groundstaff.
Those bowlers were well supported in the field, too. Matt Lamb’s catch, running every bit of 30 metres from short fine leg towards the boundary to cling on to a top-edge offered by Gary Ballance, was outstanding, while Michael Burgess, who has just signed a two-year contract extension, justified his growing reputation with the gloves by pulling off two stumpings. The first of them, as Jonathan Tattersall attempted a reverse-sweep but dragged his back foot a little, was especially impressive.
All that being said, this was an horrendous batting performance from Yorkshire. Unable to adjust to the pace of the wicket or work out what a par score might have been, they succumbed to a series of cross-batted slogs – four of them: Ballance, Mark Stoneman, Dom Bess and Matt Fisher all fell to mistimed pulls – when they might have been wiser to accept it was a pitch on which a total of 140 to 150 might have sufficed.
They do have some mitigation. They have been decimated by injuries and international call-ups, with five men absent on England duty and two more batters absent through injury. In this game, they utilised their third keeper and third captain of the campaign.
“We didn’t adapt to the wicket quickly enough,” Lyth admitted with admirable candour afterwards. “The scoreboard won’t reflect it, but I thought it was a pretty good wicket with a bit of extra pace and bounce. But if you get bowled out for 81, you leave your bowlers with no chance. It’s not good enough.”
Birmingham needed this result. They hadn’t won in four matches – albeit one of those was abandoned due to rain – including a home defeat at the hands of Derbyshire and had dropped out of the top four. This was their first home win and pushes them up to third with a much-improved net run-rate. The hit Yorkshire took to theirs sees them drop to second.
George Dobell is a senior correspondent at ESPNcricinfo
Source: ESPN Crickinfo