Vitality Blast roundup: Joe Root helps Yorkshire crush Derbyshire by 99 runs
Joe Root’s commanding 64 off 40 balls followed by two wickets with his offbreaks helped Yorkshire to end their Vitality Blast hoodoo against Derbyshire with a thumping 99-run win at Headingley.
England’s Test captain hit two legside sixes and seven fours, Adam Lyth adding 61 off 32, as Yorkshire posted 220 for five before easily defending it to end a run of six straight North Group defeats against Derbyshire.
Derbyshire, last season’s semi-finalists, had done the double over the White Rose county in each of the past three summers but they rarely looked like extending their dominance as they crumbled to 20 for four in the fifth over of their reply and finished on 121 for nine.
Matthew Fisher’s three for 21 from four overs with the new ball was the pick of the Yorkshire figures.
Elsewhere, Adam Rossington defied a hand injury as he struck a quickfire half-century to lead Northamptonshire to a nine-run win against Somerset.
Rossington was left grimacing in pain for the majority of his 51 from 31 balls after he was pinned on the right hand by Somerset seamer Ollie Sale and required treatment on the field.
But the wicketkeeper-batsman, profiting from targeting the leg side, played the match-defining innings and shared an 81-run stand with his captain, Josh Cobb.
Rossington was then unable to take his place in the field as the hosts held on to defend 171 for six, with 39-yearold all-rounder Gareth Berg, making his
Northants debut in the Blast, claiming two for 31 and Ben Sanderson three for 36.
The Sussex captain, Luke Wright, led by example with a thunderous innings of 82 from 55 balls as his side beat Hampshire by six wickets with one ball to spare. Victory for Sussex was always likely once Wright and Phil Salt had put on 89 for the first wicket in just eight overs chasing 177 – the normally dominating Salt was on 23 when Wright reached his half-century. But there was drama in the last over, when Sussex still needed six to win.
After Ravi Bopara was out lbw to the first delivery, bowled by James Fuller for four, new batsman Harry
Finch hit a single to leave five off four before David Wiese pulled to the legside boundary for another single. But when Fuller bowled a dot ball to Finch Sussex suddenly needed four runs off two balls. However, the Sussex batsman pulled the penultimate delivery of the game to square-leg for the required boundary.
Warwickshire beat Glamorgan by six wickets in Cardiff to lift the away side to second place in the Central Group.
Chris Cooke’s 72 off 56 balls underpinned Glamorgan’s score of 140 for nine as no other batsman managed more than 15 while Tim Bresnan finished with three for 33 from his four overs. Warwickshire reached their target with seven balls to spare thanks to 38 from Adam Hose and an unbeaten 35 from Sam Hain.
The game between Surrey and Essex at The Oval ended in a tie after the home side finished on 143 for eight following Essex’s 143 for six.
Ben Foakes carried Surrey to the verge of victory with a composed 44 but he was out off the penultimate ball with the scores level and then James Taylor was run out off the final delivery looking for the single that would have secured a win.