Consistency and logic has never been a Yorkshireman’s strong point but their resident cricket team are really taking this to the next level with their T20 campaign. Now that they are squandering down at the bottom of the table having played five matches and won just two, they walk all over a team three places up from them in the table as though it were top playing bottom.
The Viking’s struck a massive 209-4 from their 20 overs and then remained firmly in the driving seat throughout the match, limiting Notts to 169-6 and winning by 40 runs.
Outlaw James Taylor won the toss and decided to let his men bowl first with Glenn Maxwell scoring an unbeaten 92 and Andy Hodd getting the ball rolling with a career-best 70 from 39.
Hodd was unceremoniously sent to the crease in the second over when Nottinghamshire’s Jake Ball struck with his fourth delivery and dismissed Aaron Finch for just 6 runs. The scorecard indicated that Maxwell was due in but the Vikings made a last minute change and boy did it pay off.
Having previously registered a Twenty20 best of 26, ‘The Hodfather’ as he is more affectionately known, came to the crease with his skipper and smashed the ball all around the ground with the best of them and secured a brilliant 70 from 39 balls with six fours and five sixes.
His 100 run partnership with Maxwell put the much-required motor into Yorkshire’s innings and provided the ideal base for the Australian to play each and every weird and wonderful shot that he fancied.
By the closing overs the Outlaws were at a loss for how to bowl to him, he was flicking and shovelling the ball all around the ground with the ease of butter sliding off a hot knife. Despite a very good, tight final over from Harry Gurney, the innings finished with back to back boundaries, first a maximum then a four to bring their total to a figure that was merely a dream for Notts.
Notts lost wickets regularly starting with the first and second overs when Michael Lumb and Riki Wessels fell to opening bowlers Maxwell (caught and bowled Lumb for 0) and Tim Bresnan got Wessels caught behind for 5.
Samit Patel played a fruitful but redundant innings for his team as he struck 90* and headed off the pitch at the end as Notts’ top-scorer having been at the crease since the second over. His well-deserved innings came from 59 balls and included five fours and five sixes.
While there were plenty of runs and wickets to be had – admittedly more for Yorkshire than Nottinghamshire – the match ended in a decidedly docile manner as Patel and Sam Wood just saw out the final two overs and reached the close with asterisks next to their names.
These teams will clash again next week in the longest format but still at Headingley.
