Picture by Ashley Allen/Getty Images. James Wharton was exceptional for 64, his second fifty in three Blast matches this season.
SCORECARD
Durham v Yorkshire
Vitality Blast
Friday May 29, 2026, 6.30pm
Banks Homes Riverside, Chester-le-Street
Toss: Durham won it and elected to bowl
Teams: Durham – Graham Clark, Alex Lees c, David Bedingham, Colin Ackermann, Ollie Robinson w, Will Rhodes, Kasey Aldridge, Ben Raine, Matthew Potts, Callum Parkinson, Nathan Sowter.
Yorkshire – Jonny Bairstow c/w, Adam Lyth, Will Luxton, James Wharton, Moeen Ali, Matthew Revis, Faheem Ashraf, Dom Bess, AJ Tye, Hassan Ali, Jafer Chohan.
Match summary: Yorkshire are on the charge having won three from three in the Blast.
Here, they beat a Durham side who sat top of the North Group before a ball was bowled with two wins from two. The White Rose posted 151-9 on a slow pitch and defended it with, in truth, ease.
Durham were bowled out for 93 inside 17 overs to lose by 58 runs.
There were a whole host of performers to highlight; James Wharton with a superb 64 off 41 balls with eight fours and a six. Jonny Bairstow made 43, Matthew Revis 19 added to two catches, while Hassan Ali, Moeen Ali and Dom Bess all struck twice apiece.
Picture by Ashley Allen/Getty Images. Matthew Revis took two catches and hit late runs as Yorkshire went three wins from three this evening.
Report: Matthew Potts and Callum Parkinson struck as Yorkshire fell to 9-2 in the third over. Adam Lyth miscued to mid-wicket against Potts, Luxton played on slog-sweeping at Parkinson’s left-arm spin.
Up until late in the 10th over on a slow, low and turning pitch – that was evident pretty early – Yorkshire had only scored two boundaries as Jonny Bairstow and Wharton tried to recover.
Bairstow hoisted back-to-back off-side sixes against Nathan Sowter’s leg-spin just before the halfway mark. But Durham hit back when Aldridge had Bairstow caught at deep mid-wicket for 43 at the end of the 12th.
Aldridge also had Moeen Ali caught at cover at the start of the 14th – leaving the score at 89-4 – and was on a hat-trick.
Wharton reached his superb 37-ball fifty having hammered Sowter for a straight six and four.
Incidentally, Wharton and Bairstow were a different class to any other batter on show this evening. Maybe David Bedingham could be added to that list.
But Ben Raine bowled Wharton on the reverse before Pakistani overseas duo Faheem Ashraf and Hassan Ali holed out off Aldridge and Raine – 129-7 in the 18th over.
Matthew Revis clubbed a late 19 but fell as one of two wickets for Potts off the last two balls of the innings.
But Durham’s chase was unlikely to be a walk in the park, a theory strengthened when openers Graham Clark and Alex Lees holed out to Hassan and Faheem – 10-2 in the second over.
Picture by Ashley Allen/ Getty Images. Are Yorkshire barking up the right tree in T20 this year?
And when Ollie Robinson pushed to Moeen at mid-off and was subject of a direct hit at the non-striker’s end, Durham were 20-3 in the fourth and in all sorts of bother.
Bedingham started nicely but saw Hassan bowl Colin Ackermann – 41-4 in the sixth over.
South African Bedingham was Durham’s main hope, and he played nicely for 41. However, and thankfully so, there was just no support.
There was a brief moment when he looked like he could get it from Will Rhodes, only for Bedingham to fall himself against Moeen’s off-spin, caught brilliantly by a diving Revis running to his right from long-off.
Rhodes then holed out to Bess’s off-spin not long after and Durham were 66-6 in the 11th over. That certainly felt like game over.
And so it proved.
Spinners Moeen, Bess and Jafer Chohan all then struck as Durham crumbled to 70-9 in the 14th over before Potts was later run out going for a second.
Magic moment: Matthew Revis took a screamer running around to his right from long-off, diving full length to help Moeen Ali remove David Bedingham for 42. With Durham 62-5 in the 10th, it could also apply as the turning point.
Turning point: But Durham falling to 41-4 deep in the sixth over. Hassan Ali struck twice, and losing four wickets in the powerplay is never a good thing – no matter what target you are chasing.
Stat of the match: Yorkshire are top of the table after winning all three matches. It’s still early in the competition, but what a statistic that is!
Picture by Ashley Allen/Getty Images. Dom Bess, one of three bowlers to take two wickets for Yorkshire this evening.
What they said – James Wharton said: “We obviously got put in and had to assess the conditions quite quickly. I think we knew, even from watching the first couple of balls shoot through and Callum Parkinson was spinning them, ‘This isn’t going to be one where you blast it from the get-go’.
“We just tried to stack the innings from there.
“We had about 140 in our heads. If we got to something like that, we’d be happy to defend. And Rev obviously got us above that by smashing it.
“We’ve got three spinners – three quality spinners as well – who know their craft inside out.
“We always knew it was going to be very hard, particularly in those middle overs. It was just about picking up some early wickets, which we did straight away.”
What’s next: The change in format of this season’s Blast comes into view on Sunday, when Yorkshire host Gloucestershire at Headingley (2.30pm).
Each of the 18 counties are split into three regional groups, you play your other five opponents at home and away added to two random opponents from elsewhere, making up 12 group games.
Yorkshire face Glos at home and Hampshire away.
The top two in each group advances to the quarter-finals added to the two best third-placed finishers.
