Durham 217 for 3 (Lees 90, Robinson 64*) beat Yorkshire 189 for 7 (Tattersall 39, Raine 3-27) by 28 runs

A badly-publicised change to a Sunday morning begin at 11.30am below slate-grey Headingley skies doesn't instantly strike you as the way forward for T20 cricket and it did not convey any change of fortune for Yorkshire as they succumbed to a complete 28-run defeat in opposition to Durham. Still, as varied web sites additionally revealed that the sport was beginning at 3.30pm and 6pm, at the very least they may console themselves that they might have two extra goes to place it proper. More on these outcomes later.

Disgruntlement is rife as Yorkshire's winless runs since August 21 in all competitions drags on. When the stress is on, they give the impression of being psychologically broken, their sense of self weakened by the schisms within the county over not simply the racism allegations, however the best way they had been dealt with. Senior professionals questioning what they've let themselves in for; youngsters questioning when the distress will all finish.

About 6000 turned up, the remaining presumably in mourning for the opportunity of Leeds United's potential relegation from the Premier League a couple of miles down the highway later within the day. Yorkshire look a poorer facet in T20 than within the Championship and, within the Championship, they're backside of Division Two. The Roses T20 is at Headingley on Thursday and Lancashire won't ever have been stronger favourites.

Down in Happy Valley, the cleaning soap opera runs on apace. Alternative candidates to the return of Colin Graves as chair, a determine related to the fallen outdated regime however the man who might tip Yorkshire out of business, now embrace not only a Saudi prince and Indian traders, however apparently no lesser determine than Mike Ashley, the previous Newcastle United proprietor and majority shareholder of Fraser's Group, who's price round £2.5 billion so he might spare a £20m mortgage or so to maintain the membership functioning and have somewhat dabble in cricket.

Ashley's involvement doesn't instantly smack of an obsessively progressive future, however as the typical progressive seems to have about £80 within the financial institution, a mortgage, and no spare time, it is likely to be politic to not be too choosy about this stuff. And at the very least the duplicate shirts can be discounted.

Yorkshire had made a perfect begin when Matthew Fisher eliminated Graham Clark for nought with the primary professional ball of the innings, discovering early outswing to have him caught on the wicket. Clark had made an unbeaten hundred in Durham's 10-wicket trouncing of Northants two days earlier - Durham's first hundred on this competitors for six years - whereas Fisher had suffered a horrible evening at Worcester, wanting many a mile away from the bowler who gained an England Test debut within the Caribbean little greater than a 12 months in the past. But patterns in T20 can change instantly and with the ball swinging, for Fisher bowling was a happier enterprise.

But Lees, with that mournful energy of his, quickly reestablished Durham's superiority. David Wiese curbed Lees' leg-side blows, however was simply as readily picked by the off facet. Yorkshire's bowling grew to become ragged and considerably downcast. Stands of 85 with Michael Jones and 111 with Robinson had been constructed with out a lot menace.

Litte moments can encapsulate a facet's morale. There have been few finer fielders in county cricket than Adam Lyth, however he dropped a difficult catch when Lees was 73, pedalling again at mid-off. Wiese, the unlucky bowler, adopted up with a full toss which Lees duly deposited into the West Stand to safe his finest T20 rating.

The potential Yorkshire noticed after they signed Ben Mike from Leicestershire has but to come back to the fore, though he did dismiss Lees when Jafar Chohan took a effective diving catch at deep backward sq.. If there was optimism available maybe it got here within the form of this slender legspinner, a graduate from the South Asian Cricket Academy, who bowled three comparatively cheap overs.

Robinson's 64 from 30 was a sometimes creative affair from one of many summer season's most eye-catching younger cricketers and it diminished Jordan Thompson, particularly, to headshakes as his mix-ups did not stem the move. Thompson is Yorkshire's bellwether bowler, his temper usually revealing their normal way of thinking, and it was not good.

Yorkshire lack a lot, however they lack a demise bowler most of all and Robinson's finale - a six over long-on and 4 by additional cowl - left Thompson with the costliest figures of the day.

Yorkshire's response with the bat by no means satisfied. Lyth's transient spree had a way of "stuff it" about it, his 24 from 8 ending when a shot went all Virgin Galactic and Robinson held the catch after a profitable re-entry. (Branson's area rocket, by the way, was known as VSS Unity which is an idea that may by no means catch on in Yorkshire).

Shan Masood, the captain charged with turning issues spherical, chipped weakly to quick midwicket and when Dawid Malan's loft of Nathan Sowter fell in need of the additional cowl boundary, Yorkshire's three batters of simple high quality had all perished for 65 by the seventh over. Matthew Revis' lumbering run-out after Jonny Tattersall known as him for an off-side single added to the sense of chaos and, though Tattersall and Jordan Thompson did a spot of window-dressing, Ben Raine dismissed each.

When will this finish? Romain Rolland, the French dramatist and novelist of a century or extra in the past, famously known as for "pessimism of the intelligence, which penetrates every illusion, and optimism of the will." That highly effective mixture of realism and idealism is on the coronary heart of Yorkshire's problem. Authenticity is difficult to search out.

It is tough to envisage the arrival of a united Yorkshire after Lord Kamlesh Patel's colossal mismanagement of a fragile and unacceptable state of affairs and when, as a substitute of a normal need for a greater, extra harmonious future, there may be a lot battle and resentment. Change will solely come from inside and in the end it's all the way down to these in cost to drive it, encourage it and finance it.

Which brings us to Adil Rashid, who sharp-eyed readers can have seen is but to make an look within the Blast, and whose absence has not been formally defined by both England, to whom he's centrally contracted, or Yorkshire.

Yorkshire have privately intimated that England need Rashid to endure a substantial interval of rehab which can presumably prolong to the beginning of the white-ball internationals in September, which is likely to be comprehensible - as a result of legspin is an arduous enterprise and his shoulder might properly be creaking like a horror movie door - had been it not for the truth that no person was speaking about rehab when he went to the IPL, performed solely the primary two matches and for the following six weeks with Sunrisers Hyderabad was most prone to bench rot.

If Rashid is just not enjoying fairly why he isn't being utilised in promotional work round minority-ethnic areas, with the blessing of ECB, is difficult to grasp. Does he not recognise that he might play a serious function? But that is the issue with revolutions. Administrators and politicians defend their backs, few gamers present an curiosity within the greater image, self-interest and distortions are all over the place, and the entire shebang trundles on.

David Hopps writes on county cricket for ESPNcricinfo @davidkhopps