Jonny Bairstow gave England a high risk of injury from Twenty20 on his way to a memorable hundred for Yorkshire in their 94th run Vitality Blast win over Worcestershire on New Road.
The wicketkeeper batsman raced for three 48-ball pieces with eight sixes and seven fours, while the Vikings rallied 216 for six after being brought to the bat.
But he needed a runner for the second half of his inning after falling to the ground with a suspected ankle injury after finishing a singles from Charlie Morris.
Bairstow was able to resume buckling up after a long delay, and Adam Lyth acted as the runner, though that didn’t diminish his hitting power after resuming at 56.
That was awesome @ jbairstow21! 👏
Enjoy all 17 of his limits from his monster 112 in 51 balls 🍿
Check out # Blast21 LIVE here ➡️ https://t.co/YlrUmoqCct pic.twitter.com/OEyn0mjUfm
– Vitality Blast (@VitalityBlast) June 16, 2021
He went on to make 112 out of 51 balls before catching Riki Wessels at Long-On from Morris.
But Bairstow was unable to hold the wicket when Worcestershire was knocked out for 122, with England teammate Moeen Ali scoring 39 goals.
It will worry England ahead of the T20 series against Sri Lanka next week.
England duo Zak Crawley and Sam Billings made their second appearance for Kent after returning from the national team when their team sealed a 40-run win over Glamorgan in Cardiff.
Crawley and Billings – both part of the England testing team that were beaten at Edgbaston by New Zealand – made 15 and 30 respectively, but their bowlers did the deal to defend 144 for a total of seven.
𝐭𝐨 𝐰𝐢𝐧𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠 pic.twitter.com/dJjDGMU4OE
– Kent Spitfires (@KentCricket) June 16, 2021
Two wickets each for Marnus Labuschagne, Prem Sisodiya and Dan Douthwaite put Glamorgan in control, but they were sacked for only 104 as Labuschagne failed in the blast for the first time.
Skipper Will Rhodes scored the top 79 of his career when Birmingham Bears took their fourth straight win and beat Leicestershire for the fifth straight.
Sam Hain overtook Ian Bell as the Bears’ all-time scorer in this format at 45 when they scored 190 for seven, while Ben Mike scored the top four of his career at 22.
Scott Steel made 46 and Rishi Patel 30, but after losing three key strokes on power play the Foxes always lost their pace and fell 35 runs short, Tim Bresnan got three for 29 and Danny Briggs three for 35.