Picture by Dave Vokes/Hampshire Cricket. AJ Tye’s blistering 44 gave Yorkshire a total to work with. He hit four successive sixes off Sonny Baker.
SCORECARD
Hampshire Hawks v Yorkshire Vitality Blast, Men Friday June 26, 2026, 7pm The Utilita Bowl
Toss: Yorkshire won it and elected to bat.
Teams – Hampshire: James Vince c, Toby Albert, Joe Weatherley, Ben Mayes, Liam Dawson, Tristan Stubbs, Hilton Cartwright, James Fuller, Scott Currie, Chris Wood, Sonny Baker.
Yorkshire: Adam Lyth, Jonny Bairstow c/w, Will Luxton, Sam Whiteman, Moeen Ali, Matthew Revis, Faheem Ashraf, Hassan Ali, AJ Tye, Jafer Chohan, Dan Moriarty.
Match Summary: Yorkshire lost a thrilling battle of the Vitality Blast table-toppers as Hampshire raced to a 151-target for the loss of eight wickets with only a ball to spare.
The White Rose lead the North Group and Hampshire the South. They won for the sixth time in seven after bowling their visitors out of 150.
AJ Tye crashed a late 44 off 17 balls with five sixes to give Yorkshire something to bowl at, and he later struck three times with the ball. But, ultimately, it wasn’t enough to prevent a third defeat in seven games.
Dan Moriarty impressed with 3-27 from four overs of left-arm spin, with Joe Weatherley top-scoring for Hampshire with 63 off 33 balls.
But seamer Chris Wood was their hero as they took eight off last over from Tye. With six needed off the last three balls, he hit a four and six to seal it.
Yorkshire remain top of the North Group on 16 ahead of Nottinghamshire on the same but courtesy of a superior net run-rate.
Picture by Dave Vokes/Hampshire Cricket. Adam Lyth hit an early six off Sonny Baker.
Report: Despite Adam Lyth cover driving England Test quick Sonny Baker for six in the second over, Hampshire stamped their authority on this contest early on.
Jonny Bairstow miscued a catch behind on the attack against left-arm seamer Chris Wood before Lyth was caught at short third against Scott Currie’s seam.
Yorkshire went beyond 50 in the eighth over, with Sam Whiteman on T20 debut for the county and Will Luxton together on a used Utilita Bowl pitch.
Yorkshire reached the 10-over mark at 67-2, with Luxton leading the way on 29.
But neither Luxton with 39 or Whiteman with 24 were able to kick on from starts as Yorkshire slipped to 86-4 in the 13th over.
Luxton holed out to deep backward square-leg against James Fuller’s seam before Currie returned to get Whiteman well caught running back from mid-off by captain James Vince, who returned to action after a game out with a back injury.
Wood then struck twice in the 15th over – 96-6 – by getting Moeen Ali caught at short fine-leg and Matthew Revis at long-on, and Yorkshire were in danger of falling a long way below par.
AJ Tye changed that view with three successive sixes off Baker at the end of the 18th over, one over long-leg, another over cover and the last over long-on, as the score moved to 139-6.
Faheem Ashraf and Hassan Ali then fell to successive deliveries in the 19th, the former caught at mid-off and the latter run out following a mix-up with Tye, who was now 37 at 142-8.
Tye actually hit four successive sixes against Baker, including one at the start of the 20th over, before being yorked for a superb 44 off 17. Dan Moriarty was also lbw later in the over to wrap the innings up.
Hassan then struck in the opening over of Hampshire’s chase, getting Toby Albert caught at slip with a beauty of a delivery to leave the score at 4-1.
But Hampshire settled quickly through James Vince and Joe Weatherley, the latter who hit successive leg-side sixes off Moriarty’s left-arm spin in the third over.
Picture by Dave Vokes/Hampshire Cricket. Will Luxton at the crease as Yorkshire totalled 150 this evening.
They passed 50 midway through the fifth over.
Moriarty hit back to bowl a sweeping Vince for 17.
And when he had Liam Dawson caught at deep cover and trapped Ben Mayes lbw with successive deliveries in the eighth over, all of a sudden the game was back in the balance at 75-4 in the eighth over.
However, Weatherley’s presence was key.
Before the two aforementioned wickets, he reached his fifty off 26 balls.
But he fell not long afterwards, caught at deep mid-wicket slog-sweeping against Jafer Chohan – 87-5 after nine overs.
The overseas combination of Tristan Stubbs and Hilton Cartwright calmly recovered their side, only for Tye’s influence on this contest to increase when he had Aussie Cartwright brilliantly caught behind one-handed by Bairstow and then bowled James Fuller later in the 16th over.
And when Currie miscued the same bowler to mid-off, Hampshire were 133-8 after 17.1 overs.
They could have easily been 128-7 in the 17th when Hassan had a huge appeal for lbw against Currie turned down. The next ball was inside-edged for four. On reflection, it was a huge call from umpire Ben Debenham.
The target became 14 off the last two overs, eight off the last and then six off the last three balls with Wood on strike against Tye. And he won it with a boundary down the ground and a six over long-on. Stubbs finished with 27 not out and Wood unbeaten with 13 off seven.
Magic moment: AJ Tye’s three successive sixes off England Test quick Sonny Baker at the end of the 18th over gave Yorkshire’s bowlers, including himself, something to work with.
Picture by Dave Vokes/Hampshire Cricket. Adam Lyth celebrates with AJ Tye after one of the Australian’s three wickets this evening.
Turning point: This game went to the wire. With Hampshire needing six off three balls to win and Chris Wood on strike against on-song AJ Tye, you could make a strong argument to suggest Yorkshire were favourites but the seamer won it with two lusty blows.
Stat of the match: This was only the second ever meeting between Yorkshire and Hampshire in 23 years of the Vitality Blast. The only other was the 2012 final at Cardiff, which Hampshire won.
What they said – Yorkshire seamer AJ Tye said: “We probably didn’t go as well with the bat as we would have liked, but we put a total on the board.
“Hampshire then got off to a flying start, and we were well behind the eight-ball. We just kept believing that if we could keep taking wickets, we’d be putting ourselves in the game. And we did.
“We had a shout at the end, and they’re the sort of games that can go either way.
“Fair play to them, they got over the line.
“We probably had no right at some times in that game to run them that close, but we’ve got a great belief in this group and we keep fighting. Hopefully that holds us in good stead further on in the tournament.
“I just went out there, and they’d said that the pitch was a bit slow, it was holding. I was probably just setting up for the slower balls. Hampshire had bowled a lot of slower balls.
“If I could get a couple of them away, then ultimately they would go back to pace-on and hopefully that was a bit easier.
“I got a couple out of the screws. It doesn’t always happen like that as a number eight. But, yeah, happy that I could contribute and get a total on the board that we could defend.”
What’s next: Yorkshire are remaining on the road this weekend and will face Derbyshire Falcons at Chesterfield on Sunday, starting at 2.30pm.
They are aiming to complete the season’s Blast double over the Falcons having beaten them in thrilling fashion at Headingley at the end of May.
Picture by Dave Vokes/Hampshire Cricket. Chris Wood strikes the winning blow for Hampshire against Yorkshire this evening, off the bowling of AJ Tye.