ANDREW Gale’s half-century ensured Yorkshire maintained the Vikings’ perfect start to the T20 Blast with a six-wicket win over Nottinghamshire Outlaws.

The captain became the first man to surpass 2,000 T20 runs for the county as he finished unbeaten on 68 from 55 balls as they chased down their target of 144 with relative ease.

Gale and Andrew Hodd got Yorkshire off to a flier as they added 61 for the first wicket before the latter drilled a Samit Patel delivery straight to James Taylor at cover for 22.

Alex Lees and Jonny Bairstow fell soon after but that brought Glenn Maxwell to the crease and he announced himself with a drilled six off his second ball before cutting Luke Fletcher for another maximum to bring the run-rate below a run a ball.

At the other end Gale went to his half-century from 43 balls before Maxwell clubbed a Sam Wood delivery straight to Steve Mullaney to fall for 20.

But Gale made sure there were no final over nerves as he swept Wood for a six over mid-wicket to secure victory.

Earlier, youngster Matthew Fisher held two excellent catches to remove Riki Wessels and Brendan Taylor as the hosts slipped to 31-2 before Greg Smith holed out off the bowling of Rich Pyrah for 27.

Samit Patel batted nicely for 41 but, after he and James Taylor fell, it was left to Mullaney to push Nottinghamshire towards a defendable total.

He made 38 before being run out off the final ball but this was not enough to help the home side to victory.

Meanwhile, Yorkshire head coach Jason Gillespie revealed he had held talks with England over their vacant head coach role.

The former Australia seamer met with Andrew Strauss and ECB chief executive Tom Harrison on Thursday and said: “It was a really good chat.

“It was made very clear to me that there are a number of people that the ECB are talking to about the role and they’ve got a process they need to go through. Until I hear anything else I’m going to continue on as normal."