Dawid Malan, Adam Lyth energy Yorkshire to sixth straight Blast win
Yorkshire 197 for two (Lyth 90*, Malan 79) beat Leicestershire 195 for five (Kimber 59*) by eight wickets
Dawid Malan‘s fifth fifty of this season’s Vitality Blast – an outstanding 79 off 45 balls – helped Yorkshire to a record-equalling sixth straight T20 win as they chased 196 to beat Leicestershire by eight wickets with 11 balls remaining at Headingley.
Only as soon as earlier than, in 2012, had the Vikings gained six successive video games – and this run has put them in nice form for quarter-finals qualification having misplaced their first three North Group video games.
Louis Kimber bludgeoned a career-best unbeaten 59 off 38 to energy the Foxes to 195 for 5 after a blended begin to the innings. It improved every week which had seen the 26-year-old dismissed obstructing the sector in a Championship recreation in opposition to Gloucestershire on Tuesday.
But he was on the dropping aspect as Malan united with fellow fifty-maker Adam Lyth, the left-handers sharing an outstanding membership document opening stand of 158 in 14 overs.
Unbeaten Lyth went on to top-score with a season’s greatest 90 off 50 balls, whereas Malan completed his innings because the competitors’s main run-scorer with 488 to his identify.
Leicestershire, inserted, raced to 63 with out loss after six overs of powerplay, Nick Welch scoring 39 of them.
He pulled former team-mate Ben Mike for an enormous six over the Western Terrace however solely added another run to his tally earlier than falling to Jordan Thompson because the Foxes slipped to 65 for one within the seventh, beginning a Yorkshire fightback.
A surprising piece of relay boundary fielding from David Wiese at long-on adopted as he palmed again what seemed a sure Rishi Patel six to Shan Masood, who was lurking 10 yards away.
That gave Mike his first wicket, and his second adopted instantly as Colin Ackermann flicked a knee-high full toss to deep square-leg subsequent ball – 82 for 3 within the ninth.
Opener Harry Swindells accrued a busy 39 earlier than falling sufferer as Wiese had the wicketkeeper-batter caught at deep midwicket with a slower ball – 110 for 4 within the thirteenth.
Dom Bess bowled properly for nought for 22 from 4 overs. However, the stability tipped once more as Kimber and South African Wiaan Mulder united to share 53 inside six overs for the fifth wicket.
While Mulder (31 off 17 balls) crashed two fours and two leg-side sixes off Mike because the seventeenth over went for 22 to revive the rating to 156 for 4, Kimber went on to prime rating.
Having dealt with the ball in opposition to Gloucestershire, Kimber was sturdy on either side of the wicket right here in bettering a earlier greatest 55 posted much less a fortnight in the past.
He clubbed Matthew Revis for six over long-on after which sliced Wiese over backward level in the beginning of the twentieth to succeed in a 34-ball fifty. The Foxes scored 61 off the final 4 overs.
But Malan and Lyth made the goal look a great distance under par on a floor which has seen two scores north of 215 already this marketing campaign.
Languid Malan adopted Welch’s lead and cleared the Western Terrace off Josh Hull’s seam because the second over went for 18 (21 with out loss). Though, in equity, there was nothing languid about this blow. It was all energy.
Malan took boundaries on either side of the wicket as he made the early working with 35 of 56 with out loss after six overs. But Lyth discovered his rhythm too.
He truly overtook Malan on 37, by which era the Vikings had been motoring with 78 early within the ninth over.
Like Kimber, Lyth reached his fifty with a six off 28 balls, this one pulled off Rehan Ahmed’s leg-spin. And when Malan adopted him to the identical milestone off 31 balls later within the tenth over, the hosts had been cruising at 104 with out loss.
There was no pegging this one again, and it was nothing greater than a consolatory strike when Malan carved Michael Finan’s left-arm seam out to deep cowl on the finish of the 14th over.
Finan additionally eliminated James Wharton earlier than Lyth hit the profitable runs in the beginning of the nineteenth. He and Malan shared 5 sixes.