JONNY Bairstow top-scored with 34 off 22 balls as Yorkshire eased to a 145 target and an opening night Vitality Blast win over Birmingham Bears at Emerald Headingley.

The Vikings secured a routine six-wicket victory to begin their North Group campaign with a bang as Bradford star Bairstow shared 59 for the second wicket with England colleague Dawid Malan.

Both fell in the seventh and ninth overs - Malan for 23 - as the score fell to 69-3 before Tom Kohler-Cadmore, Harry Brook and Will Fraine saw their side home with nine balls left.

Jordan Thompson equalled a career best 3-23 from four overs of seam as the Bears stuttered to 144-8, with Sam Hain’s 59 off 41 holding things together.

Matthew Waite had Will Rhodes and Adam Hose caught off miscues as Birmingham slipped to 29-3 inside four overs having been inserted.

Hain came in at 6-2 in the second and hit three sixes before falling midway through the final over to David Willey.

He shared 33 for the fourth wicket with Dan Mousley and 49 for the seventh with former home favourite Tim Bresnan, who made 23 to advance the score from 89-6 in the 13th over on a true pitch.

Adil Rashid and New Zealand debutant Lockie Ferguson were outshone by all-rounders Waite and Thompson as all the Bears wickets were caught.

Waite opened the bowling and returned a career best 2-36, while Thompson’s haul included two caught and bowleds.

One was a superb diving effort to dismiss West Indian Carlos Brathwaite cheaply.

Yorkshire lost Adam Lyth four balls into their chase to Danny Briggs’ left-arm spin.

But Bairstow slog swept him for six over midwicket in the third over before Malan clipped and cut successive boundaries off Brathwaite in the next to get the Vikings rolling.

Bairstow, making his first Blast appearance since Finals Day in 2016, pulled Bresnan for two sixes before the all-rounder had Malan tamely caught at midwicket.

Bairstow then chopped on to Briggs in the ninth over as the Vikings slipped to 69-3.

But they never realistically looked like encountering serious danger in front of a boisterous 4,000 crowd.

Kohler-Cadmore and Brook (24) shared 49 before the latter fell to Brathwaite, leaving the score at 118-4 after 16.1 overs.

Kohler-Cadmore finished 31 not out before Fraine crashed 19 off eight balls, including the winning runs.