By Gary Watton
July 24 2015

At the risk of quoting the old cliché, it was a case of too little, too late as a makeshift Vikings team comprehensively dismantled the northern group winners, the Birmingham Bears, winning with eight wickets and three balls to spare. How the Yorkshire faithful have yearned for such emphatic performances in recent weeks. With the exception of young Waite who was scalped for seventeen runs off his one over, the Vikings attack performed really well. Will Rhodes even took three wickets from three overs, but unfortunately his promotion to opening batsman in the Twenty20 Blast proved to be a lot less fruitful.

Fortunately for the home team, Alex Lees recorded his second half century of the week, while Jack Leaning enjoyed a return to form, compiling his first Twenty20 half century of the campaign. It was massively ironic how well the young Vikings coped in the absence of such supposedly key personnel as Bairstow, Finch, Gale, Maxwell, Rashid, and Root. The coach Jason Gillespie had earlier promised big changes in future attempts at securing Twenty20 glory, although he will presumably stop short of cramming the team full of so many novices, even if on this occasion the scratch team effectively won a dead rubber. The Brummies after all had already qualified for the last eight, but quoting clichés again, you can only beat what is placed in front of you, so a big congratulations is extended to the young troops for at least finishing a disappointing Twenty20 season with a convincing triumph. Indeed the white rose county began and ended their Twenty20 group commitments with a success, but what happened in the fixtures in between is best forgotten.

On a nice note of trivia, Headingley peculiarly was the only venue that was able to withstand the ravages of the day's unfavourable weather, as no fewer than six matches were abandoned, without a ball even being hurled in anger, while Glamorgan and Gloucestershire had to make do avec a bizarre five overs-a-side shoot out. Well, the time is now almost upon us where the under-performing Vikings will be launching into a series of limited overs outings in the Royal London One Day Cup, in a bid to improve upon last year's quarter final exit. At least the morale in the Vikings' dressing room will be much healthier than it has recently been, as these twenty-first century cricket warriors embark on their quest to pillage other English counties. Happy hunting!

YORKSHIRE VIKINGS versus Birmingham Bears; at Leeds; Friday the 24th of July 2015. Birmingham Bears won the toss.

Birmingham Bears: 145 (off 18.4 overs)

Lewis c Leaning b Plunkett 4 (4-1)

McCullum b Fisher 6 (11-2)

Ambrose c Hodd c Coad 19 (50-3)

Clarke c Lees b Coad 21 (57-4)

Evans c Hodd b Rhodes 25 (92-6)

Woakes c Fisher b Pyrah 6 (77-5)

Javid c Lees b Fisher 22 (145)

Patel c Leaning b Pyrah 4 (101-7)

Gordon c Gibson b Rhodes 18 (131-8)

Hannon-Dalby b Rhodes 1 (135-9)

Poysden not out 1

Extras: 18

Rhodes 3-0-27-3

YORKSHIRE VIKINGS: 148 for two (off 19 3 overs)

Lees lbw b Patel 63 (120-2)

Rhodes c Poysden b Clarke 5 (16-1)

Leaning not out 60

Hodd not out 15

Extras: 5

YORKSHIRE VIKINGS won by eight wickets. YORKSHIRE VIKINGS two points, Birmingham Bears no points.

FINAL GROUP STANDINGS:

Warwickshire - twenty points from fourteen matches [Qualified for the last eight]

Worcestershire - nineteen points from fourteen matches [Qualified for the last eight]

Northamptonshire - sixteen points from fourteen matches [Qualified for the last eight]

Lancashire - fifteen points from fourteen matches [Qualified for the last eight]

Nottinghamshire - fifteen points from fourteen matches

Durham - eleven points from fourteen matches

Leicestershire - eleven points from fourteen matches

YORKSHIRE - eleven points from fourteen matches

Derbyshire - eight points from fourteen matches

It is said that statistics don't lie, and the final results are most revealing. Only three counties in the two groups finished with a lower points tally than the Yorkshire Vikings, while only two teams in both groups 'achieved' a lower run rate. Also, only two counties lost more matches. This aggregate of damning statistics is a reminder of how far the Vikings have fallen as a force in English Twenty20 cricket. Changes are indeed drastically required, as Jason Gillespie has promised. One certain correction is the need to replace Andrew Gale as an opening batsman. To do otherwise would be a supreme folly and merely invite more setbacks in future years. Ironically, although Glenn Maxwell has not lived up to the hype and rarely delivered, he is my pick as the best of a bad bunch. His all-round contribution was not bad, if not exactly earth-shattering. Funnily enough, the Aussie import was barred from this last match on account of a breach of discipline. Maybe the Vikings were better off without him?

BEST BOWLERS (minimum criteria of ten wickets)

Maxwell - 22; twelve wickets; best bowling: 3-15

Plunkett -22; eleven wickets; best bowling: 3-49

Fisher - 22.62; sixteen wickets; best bowling: 5-22

No other Viking managed to take ten wickets.

BATSMEN (minimum criteria of one hundred runs)

Leaning - 42.25; 338 runs; highest score: 60 not out

Bairstow - 32; 320 runs; highest score: 92

Bresnan - 31; 155 runs; highest score: 51

Gale - 26.18; 288 runs; highest score: 68 not out

Maxwell - 20.82; 229 runs; highest score: 92 not out

Lees - 19.44; 175 runs; highest score: 63

Hodd - 16.14; 113 runs; highest score: 70

No other Viking managed to hit one hundred runs.