Cricket News: Vitality T20 Blast Final thriller for Yorkshire Vikings 

One of the best weeks of the domestic cricket calendar began with a spectacular win of Yorkshire Viking over Surrey in the first quarter-finals as Jordan Thompson held his nerve to defend five runs in the final. 

The home side looked like favorites to win the match and seal their spot for the final day at Edgbaston, but after a solid partnership between Jamie Overton and Laurie Evans, who managed to take them on the verge of victory, they failed to do so by one run. 

Yorkshire Vikings batting first had a terrible start as they lost their openers in 2 overs. However, Tom Kohler-Cadmore and skipper David Willey anchored the innings to fetch 93 off 81 in partnership. Tom Kohler-Cadmore scored 62, whereas the skipper lost his wicket at 30. Having lost four wickets at 108, Shadab Khan and Will Fraine's cameo of 12-ball 21 and 14-ball 32* rocketed their total to 160 at a loss of 5 wickets in 20 overs. 

In response, Surrey also lost their skipper early at one run, but Rory Burns and Tom Curran played fine innings to get a 55-run stand at the second wicket. After roaring with the bat, Shadab Khan scalped two crucial wickets to get the breakthrough as the team got reduced to 91/5. By this time, the team looked to be on the losing end until Laurie Evans and Jamie Overton stitched a crucial partnership of 67 runs in 34 balls to get the hosts back into the game. But Matt Revis and then Jordan Thomspson held the spirits to send Yorkshire to Edgbaston as they restricted Surrey to 159/7. 

On defending the final over successfully, Jordan Thompson said, "It was a case of trying to out-think the batter. That's why I went first ball, bouncer, next ball I went yorker, yorker again and I went with a slower ball to Jamie, he missed and started running. Then I tried to go to yorker again for the last ball. Looking back, it was probably the most slot ball of the lot and should have gone for six!

He added, "By my standards, in the last few games, I haven't been great with the ball - obviously tonight I got it right and to stand up in a big moment like that is great. Hopefully, next Saturday's our day as well,"

Yorkshire Vikings will lock horns with Lancashire Lightning and Essex Eagles winner in the semi-finals. It will be their third appearance at Finals Day, the first since 2016! Now off to Birmingham, where Hampshire Hawks will clash with Birmingham Bears in the second quarter-finals to find their final spot.