Moxon proud of Tykes despite departing early

NORTH ROUND-UP

YORKSHIRE director of cricket Martyn Moxon believes his side played good cricket throughout the competition despite an early exit from this year’s Blast.

A record-filled victory over NORTHANTS at Headingley last Thursday was not enough as Yorkshire fell two points short of the North Group’s top four places.

Moxon, however, took solace in the performances of opener Adam Lyth and off-spinner Azeem Rafiq. Lyth’s sparkling 73-ball 161 surpassed Brendon McCullum’s 158 not out as the highest score in English domestic T20 cricket.

“I’m delighted for him because he works so hard, and it was a very special night for him. He took it to a different level,” enthused Moxon.

“Up until the last few years, Lythy has struggled in T20. It’s taken Lythy a little while to trust his method and his way of playing. But, wow, has he found it now.

“We’ve played good cricket throughout the 14 matches.We had a couple rained off. As ever with T20 cricket, it’s just little patches of matches that win you or cost you the game.”

Meanwhile, if any team had grounds for complaint about the weather, it must be Northants. The defending champions exited with a whimper last Friday after rain curtailed their chase of 208-3 against Durham, the team they beat in last year’s final.

Frustratingly for the Steelbacks, it was the third washout of their campaign, and no team has suffered more games ending with no result.

Head coach David Ripley said:“We set up a good position with three games to go, even though we maybe hadn’t played our absolute best cricket.We looked well set to qualify and we’ve played poorly.”

Joining with early exits were LANCASHIRE ,WORCESTERSHIRE and DURHAM, whose final games against BIRMIGHAM , DERBYSHIRE and Northants respectively were dead rubbers.