Yorkshire’s Vitality Blast quarter-final hopes were ended with defeat to the North Group’s bottom side Nottinghamshire, the Vikings failing to chase 210 in a must-win game at Headingley.

Coming into this final group fixture, Yorkshire had to win and hope for favours from elsewhere.

But they fell short in the face of a target which would have been their highest successful chase in Blast history, finishing on 181-6 to lose by 28 runs.

The Outlaws’ 209-9 included a blistering 50 off 21 balls for Jack Haynes and 48 and 44 respectively for T20 debutants Freddie McCann and Sammy King.

Opener McCann, aged 19, was making his first-team bow for a county who won for only the fourth time in 14 group games.

Seamer Ben Cliff returned a career best 4-31 for the Vikings, but their seventh Blast defeat of the season proved fatal.

Leg-spinner Calvin Harrison and seamer Luke Fletcher claimed two wickets apiece for Notts and James Wharton top-scored with 52 off 46 for the hosts. 

James Wharton needed better support from his team-mates in Yorkshire's chase.James Wharton needed better support from his team-mates in Yorkshire's chase. (Image: Ray Spencer.)

Yorkshire were missing England opener Dawid Malan with a side strain, but they started ideally when Cliff bowled captain Joe Clarke in the second over to make the score 6-1.

McCann and King then advanced, sharing a fearless 87 for the second wicket. 

Left-handed McCann hit successive sixes - one uppercut and the other over long-on - and a four off Jordan Thompson in the fifth over to take the score to 46-1.

King also hit Jafer Chohan’s leg-spin for three sixes in as many balls straight and over wide long-on as 22 came off the ninth over.

However, he drilled a Thompson full toss to long-on in the next, with the Outlaws reaching the halfway mark at 96-2.

McCann suffered the same fate as King, caught in the deep trying to clear the ropes for a maiden fifty, meaning he was caught at long-on off Chohan early in the 13th to make the score 125-3.

Haynes reached his fifty off 20 balls and, like McCann and King had earlier, took a bowler for successive sixes.

Spinner Dan Moriarty was the victim as the worry-free Outlaws motored towards 200.

Haynes and Tom Moores, for 30, were then among six wickets to fall in the final 25 balls as Yorkshire stemmed the tide, including two for Cliff in the last over. 

But their late good work with the ball went unrewarded as openers Will Luxton and Adam Lyth, plus captain Shan Masood, all fell caught off miscues, leaving the chase floundering at 31-3 in the fourth over.

Adam Lyth could only make eight as Yorkshire got off to a bad start.Adam Lyth could only make eight as Yorkshire got off to a bad start. (Image: Ray Spencer.)

In the fourth over, Fletcher struck twice in as many balls to get Lyth caught at deep square-leg and Masood at point.

Wharton tried his best to recover things. He viciously pulled Olly Stone for six over midwicket, but he lost George Hill bowled by Harrison (2-19) en-route to 88-4 after 10 overs.

Wharton found a partner in Donovan Ferreira, but it was all too brief as the South Africa hoisted a couple of sixes in 22 before falling caught at long-on off Harrison.

At 105-5 in the 12th over, it felt like Yorkshire’s race was run and so it proved.

Wharton reached his fifty off 41 balls, but it just wasn’t enough as the Vikings missed a golden opportunity to advance.

After he chipped Fazalhaq Farooqi to cover, making the score 132-6 in the 16th over, the contest drifted towards a low-key conclusion.

Thompson continued his good night with a consolatory unbeaten 50 off 29 but it was far too little, too late, for Yorkshire.