ANDREW Gale admitted his frustration at Yorkshire's missed opportunity against Derbyshire at Chesterfield yesterday – but the coach remains confident they can bounce back in a big week for their Vitality Blast hopes.

Gale saw the Vikings fail to defend a target of 167, including 42 off the last three overs, 27 off the last two and 19 off the last as England Lions all-rounder Matt Critchley starred for the Falcons.

The 21-year-old smashed two fours and two sixes in the final over from Tim Bresnan, which actually went for 22, to seal a five-wicket win with a ball to spare.

Critchley finished on 38 not out off 17 balls in Yorkshire's third defeat from seven North Group games, leaving them on eight points and still inside the top-four quarter-final qualifying places.

They get an immediate opportunity to bounce back as the two teams meet at Emerald Headingley tomorrow (6.30pm) in the game rescheduled because of England's football World Cup semi-final earlier this month.

It is the first of three successive home games for the Vikings, who have an excellent record when they are hosting.

They have only lost twice in two-and-a-half seasons of the Blast, although ironically both came against their next two opponents – Derbyshire last year and Leicestershire in 2016.

The Foxes visit Headingley on Tuesday, as do Northamptonshire on Friday.

"It's a big week for us," said Gale. "We have three games, and three home games as well.

"Everyone is beating everyone in this group, and that's what makes it more disappointing to lose.

"When you get a chance, you need to take it, but we have a good record on our home patch, so we'll fancy them (Derbyshire) at our place."

Yesterday, David Willey hit 55 and spinners Azeem Rafiq and Adil Rashid struck with two wickets apiece.

Both sides lost momentum in their innings on a sluggish pitch.

Yorkshire were 109-2 after 12 overs and posted 166-8 and Derbyshire were 42-1 in the fifth before falling to 106-5 after 15.

A lot of Gale's frustration came because this defeat left him looking back at last year's campaign when Yorkshire suffered a number of away defeats in games they should have won, ultimately preventing them from qualifying for the quarter-finals.

He said: "In T20 cricket, you almost sort of feel you're taking two steps forward and one back at times after such good a performance (against Birmingham on Friday).

"I thought we did a lot of good stuff, but when it was time to be clinical our skills let us down.

"This is always a tricky place to come, we knew that. We talked at length about how we were going to play and go about things.

"I thought the back end of our innings we should have got 170 or 175, but needing 40-odd off the last three overs, we should have been able to close it out with the ball.

"Brez has done it twice for us (closed games out). He did it at Durham and Worcester. It was the right decision to bowl him. I back him all day.

"We knew it would be a tough and tacky pitch and that par score was 160, but we were trying to get as close to 180 as we could after the start.

"We just lost a bit of momentum towards the back end of the innings."