Report: Bears v Vikings, Vitality Blast
Bears returned to winning ways with a comfortable four-wicket victory over Yorkshire Vikings at Edgbaston.
The Vikings, who had won three of their first four games, were undone by spin, bowled out for 145 in 19.5 overs as the Bears’ three twirlers harvested a combined 10-0-61-7.
Joe Root (39, 27 balls) and Dawid Malan (38, 27 balls) lifted their side to a promising 77 for one but the rest folded against an attack led by Jake Lintott (three for 15) and Danny Briggs (three for 26).
The Bears then reached 151 for six with 11 balls to spare thanks to punchy contributions from Mousley (41, 29 balls) and Jake Bethell (32, 15 balls) and a wise one from Sam Hain who passed 4,000 career T20 runs on his way to an unbeaten 53 (40 balls).
Put in, the Vikings soon lost Adam Lyth, who played on to Richard Gleeson, but Malan and Root supplied a vibrant start with a stand of 62 in 46 balls. Chris Woakes, on his first Bears appearance of the year, was roughly treated, not least by long time England pal Root who lifted him for successive sixes into the Hollies Stand.
The charge was emphatically stopped by the spin attack.
Root sliced a slog at Briggs and sent a simple catch to short third, after which wickets fell regularly. Shan Masood reverse-swept Lintott’s first ball to point and Donovan Ferreira shovelled Mousley to mid on. When Briggs returned to lure two more batters to their doom – Malan caught at extra cover and Jordan Thompson at long off – five wickets had fallen in 35 balls.
Guilty of some reckless shots, the Vikings responded by playing some more.
Lintott took advantage to bowl Matthew Revis through an ill-judged sweep and have Jafer Chohan stumped off a fey swipe. Dom Bess chipped Hassan Ali to cover and Conor McKeer slashed Gleeson to third man to leave the last nine wickets having fallen for 68.
Unsurprisingly, the Vikings started with spin and Dan Moriarty’s fifth ball drew a fatal top edge from Alex Davies before Bess’s seventh beat a Rob Yates slog and bowled him.
Hain settled calmly though while Mousley was belligerent from ball one. He kept the Bears ahead of the clock before perishing in pursuit of his third six of the evening, and 29th of his T20 career, when he heaved Thompson to deep square leg.
While Hain quietly delivered the sort of intelligent, match-shaping innings of which he has played so many, Bethell got off the mark by pulling a Root long hop into the Hollies Stand.
Bethell’s blistering cameo left the Bears needing just 30 from 39 balls. He and Chris Benjamin fell to successive balls from Thompson, who added the scalp of Woakes to end with four for 31, but the Bears eased home to their fifth win in their last six Blast tussles with the Vikings.
Bears captain Alex Davies said: “It was a bit closer than we would have liked at the end but it was a trickier pitch than we expected. Hainy did what he does best and managed the chase really well after Jacob Bethell’s innings really shifted the momentum in our favour.
“We haven’t played our best cricket yet but we have got three wins on the board so we have got to try to find that perfect game and then run with that momentum.
“We had a good bowling power play with the seamers, we’ve got three international quicks there, and then the spinners just carried on doing what they have been doing all year. Mouse varies his pace really well, Lintott spins it both ways and Briggsy is leading wicket-taker in the Blast for a reason so I feel like we have got a lot of options at the minute and we’ll just keep searching for that perfect game.”
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