Spinners, Hain see Birmingham Bears past Yorkshire

Birmingham Bears returned to winning ways after successive Vitality Blast defeats with a comfortable four-wicket victory over Yorkshire Vikings at Edgbaston.

Vikings, who had won three of their first four games, were undone by spin, bowled out for 145 in 19.5 overs as Bears' three twirlers harvested a combined 10-0-61-7. Joe Root, with 39 off 27, and Dawid Malan (38 off 27) lifted their side to a promising 77 for 1 but the rest folded against an attack led by Jake Lintott and Danny Briggs.

Bears then reached 151 for '6 with 11 balls to spare thanks to violent contributions from Mousley (41 off 29) and Jake Bethell (32 off 15) and a wise one from Sam Hain who passed 4000 career T20 runs on his way to an unbeaten 53 from 40.

Put in, Vikings soon lost Adam Lyth, who played on to Richard Gleeson, but Malan and Root supplied a vibrant start with a stand of 62 in 46 balls. Chris Woakes, on his first Bears appearance of the year, was roughly treated, not least by longtime England pal Root who lifted him for successive sixes into the Hollies Stand.

The charge was emphatically stopped by the spin attack. Root sliced a slog at Briggs and sent a simple catch to short third, after which wickets fell regularly. Shan Masood reverse-swept Lintott's first ball to point and Donovan Ferreira shovelled Mousley to mid-on. When Briggs returned to lure two more batters to their doom - Malan caught at extra cover and Jordan Thompson at long-off - five wickets had fallen in 35 balls.

Guilty of some reckless shots, Vikings responded by playing some more. Lintott took advantage to bowl Matthew Revis through an ill-judged sweep and have Jafer Chohan stumped off a fey swipe. Dom Bess chipped Hasan Ali to cover and Conor McKer slashed Gleeson to third to leave the last nine wickets having fallen for 68.

Unsurprisingly, Vikings started with spin and Dan Moriarty's fifth ball drew a fatal top edge from Alex Davies before Bess' seventh beat a Rob Yates slog and bowled him.

Hain settled calmly though while Mousley was belligerent from ball one. He kept Bears ahead of the clock before perishing in pursuit of his third six of the evening, and 29th of his T20 career, when he heaved Thompson to deep square leg.

While Hain quietly delivered the sort of intelligent, match-shaping innings of which he has played so many, Bethell got off the mark by pulling a Root long hop into the Hollies Stand. Bethell's blistering cameo left Bears needing just 30 from 39 balls. He and Chris Benjamin fell to successive balls from Thompson, who added the scalp of Woakes to end end with 4 for 31, but Bears eased home to their fifth win in their last six Blast tussles with Vikings.