Yorkshire’s quarter-final hopes end with defeat to Nottinghamshire

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Last-placed Outlaws reach 209 for 9 after fifty for Jack Haynes

Luke Fletcher celebrates a wicket for Notts  •  Getty Images

Nottinghamshire 209 for 9 (Haynes 50, Cliff 4-31) beat Yorkshire 181 for 6 (Wharton 52, Harrison 2-19, Fletcher 2-36) by 28 runs

Yorkshire’s Vitality Blast quarter-final hopes were ended with defeat to the North Group’s bottom side Nottinghamshire, the Vikings failing to chase 210 in a must-win game at Headingley.

Coming into this final group fixture, Yorkshire had to win and hope for favours from elsewhere. But they fell short in the face of a target which would have been their highest successful chase in Blast history. Finishing on 181 for 6, they lost by 28 runs.

The Outlaws’ 209 for nine included a blistering 50 off 21 balls for Jack Haynes and 48 and 44 for T20 debutants Freddie McCann and Sammy King. Opener McCann, aged 19, was making his first-team bow for a county who won for only the fourth time in 14 group games.

Seamer Ben Cliff also returned a career-best 4 for 31 for the Vikings, whose seventh defeat proved fatal. Leg-spinner Calvin Harrison and seamer Luke Fletcher claimed two wickets apiece for Notts and James Wharton top-scored with 52 off 46 for the hosts.

Yorkshire, having elected to bowl, missed Dawid Malan with a side strain, but they started ideally when Cliff bowled captain Joe Clarke in the second over.

McCann and King then advanced, sharing a fearless 87 for the second wicket.

Left-handed McCann hit successive sixes – one uppercut and the other over long-on – and a four off Jordan Thompson in the fifth over to take the score to 46 for 1.

King also hit Jafer Chohan’s leg-spin for three sixes in as many balls straight and over wide long-on as 22 came off the ninth over. However, he drilled a Thompson full toss to long-on in the next, with the Outlaws reaching the halfway mark at 96 for 2.

Unfortunately, McCann suffered the same fate as King, caught in the deep trying to clear the ropes for a maiden fifty. He was caught at long-on off Chohan early in the 13th.

Haynes reached his fifty off 20 balls and, like McCann and King had earlier, took a bowler for successive sixes. Spinner Dan Moriarty was the victim as the worry-free Outlaws motored towards 200.

Haynes and Tom Moores, for 30, were then amongst six wickets to fall in the final 25 balls as Yorkshire stemmed the tide, including two for Cliff in the last over.

But their late good work with the ball went unrewarded as openers Will Luxton and Adam Lyth, plus captain Shan Masood, all fell caught off miscues, leaving the chase floundering at 31 for 3 in the fourth over when Fletcher struck twice in as many balls to get Lyth caught at deep square-leg and Masood at point.

Wharton tried his best to recover things. He viciously pulled Olly Stone for six over midwicket, but he lost George Hill bowled by Harrison en-route to 88 for 4 after 10 overs.

Wharton found a partner in Donovan Ferreira, but it was all too brief as the South African hoisted a couple of sixes in 22 before falling caught at long-on off Harrison. At 105 for 5 in the 12th over, it felt like Yorkshire’s race was run.

So it proved. Wharton reached his fifty off 41 balls, but it wasn’t enough as the Vikings missed a golden opportunity to advance.

After he chipped Fazalhaq Farooqi to cover – 132 for 6 in the 16th over – the contest drifted towards a low-key conclusion. Thompson continued his good night with a consolatory unbeaten 50 off 29 as Fletcher defended 34 off the last over.