Picture by Allan McKenzie/SWPix.com. Fin Bean takes the acclaim of the Yorkshire faithful having left the field with 102 not out off 57 balls to his name.
Fin Bean hit a sensational 102 not out off 57 balls – including reaching his middle-order ton at record-breaking speed – as Yorkshire dismantled Durham by 212 runs at Scarborough to move within touching distance of the Metro Bank One-Day Cup knockouts.
Bean, batting at five, recorded Yorkshire’s fastest ever List A century, off 53 balls, and smashed the previous record by seven balls in a 354 for seven total.
The left-hander was backed by James Wharton’s impressive List A best 84 off 76 balls as the Group B pacesetters set themselves up for win number five in six games.
Durham then crumbled to 142 all out in reply. Jack White’s new-ball seam returned a superb 3-24 from eight overs, consigning the visitors to their heaviest ever List A defeat as the wickets were shared around.
With two games remaining and Yorkshire sat on 20 points, four clear of fourth place and with a far superior net run-rate, it’s difficult to see how they cannot be playing in at least the quarter-finals late next week.
The target now must be to finish top of the group for direct passage through to the semi-finals.
Picture by Allan McKenzie/SWPix.com. James Wharton drives en-route to an impressive List A best 84.
Yorkshire, inserted, made a good start without taking the visiting attack apart. They saved that until the end!
The White Rose reached the halfway mark – 25 overs – in their innings at 123-2, with Wharton and Luxton both in the twenties.
Openers Imam-Ul-Haq and Adam Lyth both fell having got starts on a pitch with good pace and bounce, Yorkshire falling to 81-2 in the 17th over.
Imam was caught behind pulling at Ben Raine’s seam for 22 – his lowest score in five One-Day Cup matches – and Lyth caught at deep backward square-leg for 37 following a top-edge against former team-mate Will Rhodes.
Having reached 123-2 after 25 overs, Will Luxton and Wharton looked to accelerate, and did so for a period as they shared 88 in entertaining fashion.
Luxton pulled Ben Raine for six over deep backward square-leg and Wharton also pulled with authority en-route to a 54-ball fifty.
Picture by Allan McKenzie/SWPix.com. Fin Bean hoists one of his six sixes today.
However, almost immediately afterwards, Luxton – on 46 – miscued the pace of Sam Conners to midwicket with the score on 169 in the 33rd.
Bean, with a rare middle-order appearance, then played as well as anyone to maintain the momentum. He shovelled and pulled two leg-side sixes in racing to 50 in 33 balls.
And Durham’s attack had lost their way, as they did in the field too.
Raine yorked Wharton, leaving the score at 270-4 in the 43rd over and ending a 101 stand with Bean, who ploughed on.
His second fifty, including four more leg-side sixes, came in another 20 balls as 174 runs came off the last 15 overs of the innings.
Lyth held Yorkshire’s previous record for the fastest List A hundred, off 60 balls against Northamptonshire here in 2016. The White Rose won by two wickets chasing 311 that day.
Picture by Allan McKenzie/SWPix.com. Ben Coad celebrates the wicket of Durham’s Emilio Gay, his second with the new ball.
Today’s win was much more commanding.
Yorkshire started brilliantly with the ball as Ben Coad and Jack White shared three maidens to start with, the former bowling Alex Lees for a duck in that time.
Durham scored their first runs 23 balls into an innings which then crumbled to 32-4 inside 10 overs.
Coad bowled Lees, playing back, with one that scooted through and didn’t bounce as much as the left-hander expected before getting a driving Emilio Gay caught at second slip.
The only real disappointment of the day was when Coad walked off the field immediately with a hamstring injury having bowled 17 balls.
Further success for Yorkshire’s attack came when Matt Milnes had an uppercutting Colin Ackermann caught behind and Jack White forced captain Ollie Robinson to loop a simple catch to Bean at point.
Picture by Allan McKenzie/SWPix.com. A crowd of 4,020 watched Yorkshire close in on the Metro Bank One-Day Cup knockouts today.
And when George Hill forced Scott Borthwick to play on, Durham were 42-5 in the 14th over still needing 313 to win.
Robbie Bowman hoisted Bess out to deep mid-wicket before Lyth’s off-spin accounted for Rhodes – 27 – caught at short third.
The wickets kept coming. Number eight went to Bess, a sharp caught and bowled effort to remove Raine, leaving Durham at 103-8 in the 28th over.
George Drissell top-scored for Durham with a consolatory List A best 46, but he was next to go when he skied White to mid-on with the score on 131.
The impressive White then trapped Codi Yusuf lbw for 21 to wrap things up in 36 overs.
Each of Yorkshire’s six bowlers used struck, with Coad and Bess both striking twice. Yorkshire face Sussex next at Hove on Sunday.
Picture by Allan McKenzie/SWPix.com. Captain Dom Bess took a sharp return catch to dismiss Ben Raine, and he finished with two wickets.