Vitality Blast wins hard to come by for Yorkshire Vikings as Worcestershire Rapids cruise to victory

“Or should that be our Lyth stream! He is 41 not out.”

A nice play on words, thought a cricket correspondent in search of an intro, as Adam Lyth helped to give the hosts a decent foundation.

Lyth went on to the top score of 68 from 48 balls with five fours and four sixes, his second fifty in this year’s competition – and the 13th of his T20 career – as Yorkshire scored 177-7 from their 20 overs after choosing to bat.

Sadly for those Yorkshire fans who logged into the “Lyth stream”, it was not enough to give the hosts their second victory in this year’s tournament, Worcestershire winning by five wickets with 15 balls remaining, Riki Wessels leading the charge with 91 from 51 balls with five sixes and 10 fours.

It was a towelling, quite honestly, with Yorkshire outclassed in every respect.

They now have one win, three defeats and two no-results in the 14-match group stage, which continues for them tomorrow against Birmingham Bears at Emerald Headingley (2.30pm start).

“It was very disappointing,” reflected Lyth.

“We were maybe 10 runs short with the bat; maybe 185-190 would have been more defendable, but we needed 200 with the way that we then bowled and fielded.

“There were too many wides, and it was a shocking display in the field, to be honest. We were very, very poor in the field.

“To be fair to Riki, he did play well, but we fed him probably 40/50 runs into his slot.

“We know he’s strong leg-side, and we fed him all night, and we’re not going to win too many games playing like that.

“We just can’t seem to put a full game together with bat and ball, and we need to get on a roll quickly and start winning games.

“Hopefully, we can put things right starting on Sunday.”

Commenting on his own form, Lyth said: “Overall, I’m pretty pleased.

“I was disappointed not to go on this time and get an 80 or 90, but I’d have taken that (68) at the beginning of the day.

“I feel like I’m playing really well in this format and also in the Championship, and I just hope there’s more big scores around the corner.

“I just need to keep working hard and hopefully those big runs will come.”

On a night when the Dickie Bird Clock high above the West Stand was stuck at 9.43 (the time of the last train back to Barnsley, perhaps?), nothing could slow the pendulum swing of runs from Lyth’s bat in those early stages.

In sunny conditions, the left-hander was soon lofting the South African paceman Wayne Parnell for successive sixes over backward square-leg and then the promising seamer Pat Brown for consecutive maximums straight and over mid-wicket.

The defending champions had no answer at first, Lyth racing to his fifty from 32 balls with three fours thrown in for good measure.

With Tom Kohler-Cadmore belting Ed Barnard for six at the other end, revealing trademark power against his former club, Yorkshire were 88-0 at the halfway stage, the “Lyth stream” no doubt making for pleasurable viewing.

Things can change quickly in T20, though, and after raising a century stand in 12 overs, both openers were caught at deep mid-wicket off 25-year-old off-spinner George Rhodes.

Rhodes had Kohler-Cadmore taken by Barnard after scoring 40 from 27 balls with four fours and two sixes, and then Lyth held by Daryl Mitchell in his next over to leave the score 114-2 in the 14th.

Minutes later, loud boos rang out from the old Western Terrace, where stewards swooped to confiscate a blow-up doll that being tossed around by the crowd.

Later, the inflatable was recovered by halfwits and the process began again to raucous cheers, matched only when Harry Brook lofted Barnard for a straight six into the Emerald Stand.

Brook was third out in the 16th over, bowled by 20-year-old pace bowler Dillon Pennington, who three balls later had David Willey held at long-off to leave Yorkshire 140-4.

Tim Bresnan thumped Parnell for six over wide-long on towards the old pavilion, but he was the last of three wickets that went down for four runs in eight balls, caught at deep mid-wicket after Gary Ballance had picked out deep cover and Jordan Thompson was bowled.

That left Yorkshire 161-7 after 19.1 overs, but thanks to Jonny Tattersall and Dom Bess, they added 16 runs off the final five deliveries, Tattersall sending Brown’s last ball of the innings for six over mid-wicket.

Worcestershire lost Martin Guptill in the fourth over of the chase, caught around the corner by Steve Patterson off Duanne Olivier, who showed the best and worst of himself with some threatening deliveries and also some wides, Yorkshire conceding 12 wides in total.

Lyth had Callum Ferguson caught at point after adding 65 in just six overs with Wessels, who had a hundred for the taking before lofting Bess to Lyth at long-on.

The game was up long before Parnell and Ross Whiteley fell in the dying stages on a night which, in the end, Yorkshire’s supporters would have wanted to forget rather than savour on any kind of live stream.