YORKSHIRE suffered a disappointing, yet entertaining, loss against Durham on Friday night, falling 20 runs short in reply to the hosts’ 181-8, despite Jonny Bairstow’s 67 off 50 balls at the top of the order.

The Vikings were unable to back up Thursday night’s opening win over Birmingham Bears at Emerald Headingley and will rue allowing Durham to recover from 95-6 to post a commanding total.

Yorkshire looked well placed with Bairstow set at the crease and the score at 102-3 in the 13th over.

But he was bowled pulling at Brydon Carse’s seamers, and the Vikings struggled from there despite Harry Brook’s late 41 off 27 balls.

He took the target down from 49 off three overs to 34 off two before falling.

Ben Raine defended 25 off the last over, with Yorkshire finishing on 161-6.

Carse was Durham’s key man, earlier walloping a late 51 to lead the fightback and then returning 1-26 from three overs of seam. Matty Potts and Raine claimed two wickets apiece.

Durham’s innings was a curious one.

David Willey conceded only one off the first over of the match before Graham Clark and David Bedingham took 40 off the next two.

But Jordan Thompson (4-44) and Lockie Ferguson claimed two wickets apiece as the hosts lost six for 54 to slip to 95-6 in the 13th over. Then, Carse smashed his maiden T20 fifty, 51 off 31 balls with two sixes, to lead a superb recovery to north of 180.

While Thompson claimed four wickets for the first time, Adil Rashid could make a strong case for being Yorkshire’s best bowler with 1-19 from his four overs of leg-spin amidst a mixed bag of a bowling and fielding performance.

Coach Andrew Gale said: “We didn’t start well. They were 40 odd off the first three overs. We pulled it back well, and we were trying to bowl them out.

“Fair play to Durham. They were pretty brave with the way they went about things. On a different day, Brydon Carse could have hit one up in the air.

“I reckon they were 10 or 15 runs more than they should have been at the halfway stage.

“We were a little bit frantic with the bat at the end. But that wasn’t just what cost us. In all facets tonight, we were about 10 percent off.”

Yorkshire welcome Leicestershire Foxes to Emerald Headingley on Tuesday night (6.30pm) for their next T20 clash.