The Yorkshire Vikings travel to Edgbaston this evening for the Vitality Blast’s newest innovation, two games in the day – both in front of the Sky Sports cameras and a large crowd – to kick off the competition in blockbuster fashion.

Derbyshire Falcons versus Lancashire Lightning at 2:30pm is followed by Birmingham Bears hosting Yorkshire under the floodlights from 6pm, with Pakistan batting star Shan Masood taking charge of his new county for only the second time.

“It’s going to be interesting,” said ex-Falcon Masood. “It’s a good concept to get people engaged, and we should try it out. If it works, it will be amazing. If it doesn’t, it doesn’t matter.

“It will be good to meet up with my old county. They will be playing before us, and I will be there.

“It’s an exciting day, and we have two quality matches. And it’s at Edgbaston. I love playing there.”

Masood is part of a strong batting line up for the game down in the West Midlands, which also contains Jonny Bairstow, Dawid Malan and Adam Lyth.

Seamer Ben Mike and young leg-spinner Jafer Chohan both performed well in Yorkshire’s warm-up T20s against Leicestershire on Thursday at Headingley, with both in line to play this evening.

Yorkshire reached just their third T20 Finals Day ever last season, beating Surrey by one run in a dramatic quarter-final.

But they fell flat in their semi-final at Edgbaston against Roses rivals Lancashire.

Having hit 204-7 batting first, Yorkshire gave themselves a fighting chance of victory.

The old enemy chased down that target with ease however, winning by six wickets with eight balls to spare.

There was at least small consolation for Yorkshire, with Lancashire suffering a one-run defeat to Hampshire in a dramatic final.