Alex Davies seals Bears' first win of the season

Warwickshire Bears condemned Yorkshire to a third successive Vitality Blast defeat as they handed them a six-wicket beating at Edgbaston.

The Bears registered their first win of the campaign after Yorkshire, put in, totalled 164 for 7, having lurched from 139 for 2 to 146 for 7 in 17 balls. Dawid Malan (69 not out, 48 balls) and James Wharton (39, 23) set a solid foundation, but the middle and lower orders were scalped by the spinners as Danny Briggs, Jake Lintott and Moeen Ali each took two wickets.

Alex Davies (65) and Tom Latham (44) then added 103 for the first wicket and though Matt Milnes (3 for 23) induced a wobble, the Bears reached 168 for 4 with six balls to spare,

A heavily depleted Yorkshire team, without Jonny Bairstow (calf strain), Will Sutherland (broken toe) and George Hill (Lions duty), was given a lively start by Will Luxton who hoisted Dan Mousley for six but was bowled trying to do the same to Briggs.

Adam Lyth swung Moeen's third ball to deep mid-wicket but Malan and Wharton quietened the crowd by clearing the ropes five times in a stand of 74 in 43 balls. Malan posted a 32-ball half-century and Yorkshire were motoring nicely but then hit a big pothole (almost as big as some of those on the A435 south of Birmingham) as three wickets fell for one run in eight balls.

Lintott had Wharton caught at long on and Matt Revis caught behind sweeping at what would have been a wide. When Dom Bess clipped Moeen to mid-wicket, his and Revis' ducks had occupied an entire over for no runs.

The collapse continued as Briggs ousted Harry Duke lbw and Matt Milnes embarked upon a single in which Malan was not interested and left Hasan Ali with a simple run out in his follow through. Malan, starved of the strike as the clatter unfollowed, scored just eight runs in the last five overs and walked off two runs short of 10,000 in T20 cricket

Bears openers Latham and Davies took a measured approach to the small target and put 50 on the board in 35 balls and 100 in 65. Revis' unproductive day continued when he came on for the eighth over and Davies swung his first and third balls for six.

The pair set a new record T20 opening stand for the Bears against Yorkshire, surpassing the 55 by Ed Pollock and Ian Bell at Edgbaston in 2018, before Latham heaved Bess to deep mid-wicket. Mousley, back in the Bears' Blast team for the first time this season, and Davies fell in the same Milnes over to leave two new batters to find 37 from 35 balls.

Those new batters were Moeen Ali and Sam Hain, who arrived at the crease with 11,854 career T20 runs between them. Yorkshire were still in the game when Moeen holed out to Milnes with 18 needed from two overs but Hain (24 not out) smote two fours and a six in the first of those overs to see his side home.