Stephen Moore

By Gary Watton
July 25 2013

Mercifully for Yorkshire, their farcical Twenty20 campaign is drawing to a close. The impotent Vikings could probably do with a vet administering a lethal dose to drastically end one of the county's worst-ever years at playing limited overs cricket. In the latest outpouring of humiliation, the next-door neighbours of Lancashire cruised to an emphatic triumph by eight wickets, with a whopping nine overs to spare.

Yet again Azeem Rafiq won the toss, but this time he decided it might be prudent to bat first and post a big, daunting score. It sounds like a plan, but Adam Lyth excepted, Yorkshire's batting was characteristically feeble - in stark contrast to their heroics in this season's County Championship. I must say that I am disappointed that the talented Adil Rashid has made no significant contributions with the bat, whilst his bowling has invariably been even worse.

If Yorkshire's batting has been frail, then their bowling against Lancashire was dire in the extreme. Perhaps the red rose rascals simply batted really well, as opposed to the Tykes bowling badly. Either way, Lancashire got off to a flier, with their first wicket pair sharing in a stand that fell just short of a century but which had already decided the match in a short space of time. The star of the show was Stephen Moore who smashed an unbeaten 66 in only eleven overs. Moore was on course for a century and his team could have possibly recorded 250 runs if the target hadn't been so mediocre. Aside from Azeem Rafiq taking two wickets in quick succession, the visitors' bowling figures were wretched. Leaning got spanked for eighteen runs from his one over. Plunkett conceded a scandalous seventeen runs from his one over while Pyrah, Rashid, and Wardlaw were equally pitiful.

Yorkshire's remaining Twenty20 overs fixtures are now nothing more than a mere nets session for our hapless under-achievers.

Lancashire versus YORKSHIRE; at Old Trafford; Wednesday 24th July 2013; YORKSHIRE won the toss.

YORKSHIRE: 124 for 8 (20 overs)

Lyth c Prince b Smith 32 (53-3)

Sayers c Kerrigan b Smith 3 (15-1)

Hodgson c Kerrigan b McClenaghan 4 (20-2)

Ballance c Croft b Lilley 28 (96-6)

Leaning b Kerrigan 2 (57-4)

Rashid run out 19 (81-5)

Plunkett c Croft b McClenaghan 10 (112-7)

Pyrah not out 20

Rafiq run out 0 (122-8)

Sidebottom not out 1

Extras: 5

LANCASHIRE: 127 for 2 (11 overs)

Moore not out 66

Smith st Hodgson b Rafiq 42 (88-1)

Prince c Lyth b Rafiq 0 (88-2)

Brown not out 19

Extras: 0

Lancashire win by eight wickets.