HARRY Brook and Jordan Thompson shared a Vitality Blast record sixth-wicket partnership of 141 to help Yorkshire recover from 15-4 to beat Worcestershire at Emerald Headingley.
Brook smashed 83 not out off 54 balls and Thompson 66 unbeaten off 28 as the Vikings amassed 191-5 after Dillon Pennington had earlier taken four wickets in his first eight balls without concession.
Not only did this 56-ball alliance produce the highest sixth-wicket partnership in Blast history, it was also the second highest ever in the world for that wicket and helped Yorkshire secure top spot in the North Group with a fifth win in seven games.
Riki Wessels’ 77 off 45 led Worcester’s spirited chase as they finished on 179-5. This was their second defeat in 48 hours after they suffered a 10-wicket thumping at the hands of Nottinghamshire.
This one, their third in seven games, came by 12 runs.
Pennington removed Adam Lyth, Jonny Tattersall and Gary Ballance in his first over - a triple wicket maiden in the third of the match - and then trapped Joe Root lbw for one in his next.
Wessels will rue dropping Brook at midwicket on two off Ed Barnard’s seamers. Yorkshire would have been 21-5, and it was clearly the fixture’s key moment.
The 4,000 strong Headingley crowd were mesmerised by the remarkable power hitting of Brook and Thompson. They shared 11 sixes and recorded their second career fifties.
Pennington, 4-24, conceded three runs off his first three overs from the Kirkstall Lane End and later 21 off his fourth.
While Brook produced the higher total, Thompson’s was the most eye-catching innings.
He reached 50 off 21 balls as 158 runs came from the last 11 overs for the loss of one wicket.
The pair came together at 50-5 in the 11th and peppered the stands on both sides of the wicket and down the ground.
Opener Wessels tried his best to atone for the earlier catching error with a season’s best score.
From 50-3 in the eighth over, he shared 68 in seven overs with captain Ben Cox to keep the Rapids afloat.
But when he was yorked by Matthew Fisher at 118-4 in the 15th, it felt like the game for Yorkshire. And so it proved. But only just.
Cox finished on 61 not out and helped take the target to 23 off the last over, in which Fisher (2-33) struck again.
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