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NEW YORK -- For the second time this season, the New York Yankees will need to play without Aaron Judge.
New York plans to place its superstar slugger on the injured list with a contusion and a ligament sprain in his right big toe, manager Aaron Boone said after Tuesday night's loss to the Chicago White Sox. Judge does not have a fracture or break in his toe, according to team physician Dr. Christopher Ahmad.
"The biggest thing now is trying to get the swelling out of there," Boone said. "He had some improvements today, but now we'll see where he is in the coming days and then week. But the biggest thing is getting the swelling out of there."
"I think it definitely could have been worse. Hopefully it's on the shorter side of things."
Judge was hurt while making a running catch and crashing into the outfield fence Saturday against the Dodgers and hadn't played since.
He also spent time on the injured list earlier this season because of a right hamstring strain. When he's been healthy, Judge has put up MVP-type numbers again, hitting .291/.404/.674 with 19 homers and 2.2 bWAR in 49 games.
New York's pitching depth also is getting tested.
Nestor Cortes will be placed on the injured list due to a left shoulder injury. Boone mentioned Cortes has struggled to bounce back between starts. He's expected to miss at least two starts.
So far this season, Cortes has a 5.16 ERA in 11 starts, striking out 59 batters in 59⅓ innings.
To replace Cortes, New York called up Randy Vasquez from Triple-A. The righty made his major league debut on May 26 against the San Diego Padres, allowing two runs in 4⅔ innings pitched.
Also, pitcher Ryan Weber was diagnosed with a UCL strain. The 32-year-old righty has pitched in eight games this season, posting a 3.14 ERA in 14⅓ innings.
"Now it's determining a course of action," Boone said of Weber. "If it's going to be rehab with time down. Surgery is on the table. No decision on that yet."
Golf Channel Podcast with Rex & Lav: Biggest winners, biggest losers from PGA Tour-LIV alliance
In the wake of Tuesday's massive news that the PGA Tour, DP World Tour and LIV Golf had formed an alliance, senior writers Rex Hoggard and Ryan Lavner fired up the emergency pod.
In this Golf Channel Podcast with Rex & Lav, the senior writers weigh in on who will benefit, who this hurts, how players are reacting and whether or not Jay Monahan will survive as Tour commissioner.
Listen to the podcast above and check out the bullet points below:
- (0:00) Introduction on a stunning day
- (4:57) Who wins in this alliance?
- (7:40) Who are the biggest losers?
- (11:34) What about the PGA Tour pros who spurned LIV?
- (16:20) Why now?
- (18:30) Was this inevitable?
- (21:30) What is the power structure, what about the schedule?
- (26:20) Does Jay Monahan - and Greg Norman, for that matter - keep his job?
- (31:02) How big of a day was this in PGA Tour history?
LIV players' returns to PGA, DP World tours promises to be a thorny issue
The path back to the PGA Tour has not yet been determined.
Tour commissioner Jay Monahan, speaking to reporters Tuesday after the shocking news that the circuit is joining forces with Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, reiterated that the two sides have reached only a “framework agreement” and that key details – including how players who left the Tour for LIV Golf could be welcomed back – are not yet certain.
In the release announcing the move, the Tour said that it will work with the Saudi-backed LIV Golf and the DP World Tour to establish a “fair and objective” process for those who wish to re-apply for tour membership. Players would have to wait until the end of the 2023 season and meet the terms of re-admission that are “consistent with each tour’s policies.”
Monahan said that although reentry has been discussed, a solution between the two sides has not been reached.
“At this point, it’s reapplying for membership at some point after the end of 2023,” Monahan said, “and that’s something that I’ll address in the future, certainly, once we get through the definitive” part of the deal.
How the Tour handles the LIV players’ re-admission figures to be a thorny issue among the membership.
Phil Mickelson, Brooks Koepka and Dustin Johnson were among those who received signing bonuses with the rival league that were reportedly in the $100-$200 million range. It is unclear if they’d have to pay some sort of fine in order to return. Meanwhile, some of the Tour’s marquee players, such as Jon Rahm and Hideki Matsuyama, spurned the Saudis by turning down enormous sums of money. Monahan said that he was confident those Tour players made the “right decision,” but was not in a position Tuesday to explain why – in other words, their future earning potential.
However, when asked whether the Tour stars could be compensated in a way that is commensurate to what they could have earned by bolting for LIV, Monahan said: “What you’re talking about is an equalization over time, and I think that’s a fair and reasonable concept.”
Why now? Commissioner Jay Monahan says money, competition led to LIV alliance
Commissioner Jay Monahan said that the PGA Tour reached an agreement with Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund on Monday night, the shocking merger then leading to a rollout plan that included Monahan and PIF governor Yasir Al-Rumayyan being interviewed together on CNBC less than 24 hours later.
One of the key questions that arose: Why now?
The bitter divide between the two warring sides has lasted for more than a year – this week is the one-year anniversary of the inaugural LIV Golf event in London – so what has transpired that made the deal more palatable for both the Tour and the PIF?
Monahan was vague in regard to an exact turning point over the past seven weeks of discussions – “Circumstances change,” he said – but the specter of the Tour’s ongoing antitrust lawsuit and the financial realities of the new designated-event model appeared to factor significantly.
In order to keep pace with LIV Golf’s $25 million purses, Monahan said the Tour has needed to dip into its reserves to cover the increased costs of the designated events. Those mounting fees, as well as the ongoing lawsuit (which would stretch into at least 2024) and the Tour’s commitment to the European tour, have been “significant,” Monahan said.
“I’m grateful that when we looked at 2024, the response that we’ve gotten from our sponsors and our partners have been very positive, and the losses that we experienced in ’23 will be significantly mitigated,” he said. “This puts us in a position where we’ve got capital that we can deploy to the benefit of our members and through our tournaments, and it gives us capital to deploy in growth businesses that ultimately will generate a return that we’ll reinvest in our players.”
Another factor was more strategic, however.
It was an opportunity, Monahan said, to “take the competitor off the board.”
“We were competing against LIV, I felt very good about the changes we’ve made and the position we were in,” Monahan said, “but to take the competitor off the board, to have them exist as a partner, not an owner, and for us to be able to control the direction going forward put us in a … productive position for the game at large.”
Over the past year the Saudi-backed league has poached star players – including Phil Mickelson, Brooks Koepka, Bryson DeChambeau and Dustin Johnson, as well as reigning Open champion Cameron Smith – and there now exists a pathway for those players to return to the Tour if they reapply for membership and meet the tours’ criteria.
Jacob deGrom's elbow surgery deprives us of peak deGrom -- again
With his first pitch in a Texas Rangers uniform, Jacob deGrom threw a 99.6 mph fastball. His next five fastballs, in his Opening Day start this March, clocked in at 99.4, 99.5, 99.7, 100.1 and 101.0. He lasted just 73 pitches in that outing, his first with the Rangers after signing a five-year, $185 million contract as a free agent, but deGrom would throw 16 of them at 99 mph or faster, plus another dozen at 98 mph.
It seemed like a bright omen of things to come. Instead, his final pitch of 2023 came just 29 days later, on April 28. He went on the IL a day later, and it was announced Tuesday that deGrom will undergo surgery to repair his ulnar collateral ligament. He will miss the rest of the season and likely much of 2024, meaning that for Texas in 2023 -- and possibly next year, too -- he threw 451 pitches. The most bittersweet stat of all: 189 of them were at least 98 mph -- nearly 42%.
With the news, my first thought was of my colleague Jeff Passan's book, "The Arm," in which he captures the importance and the fragility of the arm, at a time when Major League Baseball was seeing unprecedented numbers of Tommy John surgeries. A basic synopsis might be that the human arm, with more than 20 muscles in the upper arm and forearm, simply isn't constructed to repeatedly throw a small leather sphere overhand at 100 miles per hour -- no matter how much fun we have watching it do so. "One thing I now know," Jeff writes, "is that for all its travails, all the heartache it can cause, all the frustrations left in its wake, the arm is capable of wondrous things."
That has certainly been the case with deGrom.
Few pitchers in the sport's history have matched his peak level of excellence. He led the league in ERA in 2018, when he won the first of his back-to-back Cy Young awards, and he made at least 30 starts in four of the five years after his rookie campaign. In the first half of 2021, he went 7-2 with a 1.08 ERA in 15 starts for the New York Mets, striking out 146 batters and walking just 11 in 92 innings. He had mastered an unhittable combination of velocity and command.
Even this year, until leaving his sixth and final start in the fourth inning, he remained dominant: 45 strikeouts, four walks and a .171 batting average allowed. Going back to 2018, deGrom has been the best starter in baseball when he's healthy enough to go on the mound.
Unfortunately, the second half of his career now reads like this:
2020: 12 starts (COVID-shortened season)
2021: 15 starts (forearm strain)
2022: 11 starts (stress reaction in right scapula)
2023: six starts (elbow surgery)
All might not be lost. Yes, deGrom turns 35 in a couple weeks -- meaning he will be 36 if he optimistically returns after the All-Star break next season. But, well, Justin Verlander returned from Tommy John surgery last season at 39 and went on to win a Cy Young Award.
Even if he does, though, it's still a bummer to miss out on a year-plus of watching deGrom spin his magic. The news of his surgery followed the sad news that a 34-year-old Stephen Strasburg might have thrown the final pitch of his career. Strasburg, who signed a $245 million contract with the Nationals the offseason following their win, last pitched in June of 2022. He's made eight starts since they won that World Series four years ago And the Washington Post reported Saturday that the 2019 World Series hero has been completely shut down from physical activity.
With both Strasburg and deGrom, there's just something about their careers that makes you wonder "what if?"
Among pitchers with fewer than 1,500 career innings (not including relievers), deGrom and Strasburg rank first and third in career WAR via Baseball-Reference:
1. deGrom: 41.9
2. Brandon Webb: 33.0
3. Strasburg: 30.9
4. Aaron Nola: 30.8
5. Teddy Higuera: 30.3
The injuries to these two aces certainly show the risks of signing pitchers to these big, long-term contracts. The Post reported that, due to Strasburg's previous injuries before the $245 million deal, the Nationals weren't even able to obtain insurance on him. They'll likely end up getting one win from their high-stakes gamble.
These are hardly isolated cases. The Mariners signed Robbie Ray to a five-year, $115 million contract before 2022. He made one start this season before going down with Tommy John surgery. The Yankees signed Carlos Rodon to a $162 million deal this past offseason and he's yet to pitch after going down in spring training with forearm and back issues. Chris Sale helped the Red Sox win the World Series in 2018, signed a $145 million extension that didn't kick in until 2020 and is only now healthy again after missing all of 2020 and most of 2021 and 2022 (although he's not pitching at his previous high level of dominance). And the list goes on and on.
But the lure of that arm that's "capable of wondrous things" is just too hard for front offices to resist. The Rangers, desperate for starting pitching after ranking 25th in the majors in rotation ERA in 2022, not only brought in deGrom as a free agent, but signed Nathan Eovaldi and Andrew Heaney, re-signed Martin Perez when he accepted the team's qualifying offer, and traded for Jake Odorizzi (and this after signing Jon Gray as a free agent in 2022).
Of those five pitchers, four spent time on the injured list in 2022, with only Perez escaping the season unscathed. Odorizzi won't pitch at all for the Rangers; he's already out for the season after shoulder surgery. But general manager Chris Young says he was going for depth with exactly these kinds of injuries in mind -- and he struck gold with Eovaldi in signing him to a two-year, $34 million deal (that also includes a vesting option for 2025). Eovaldi is a leading Cy Young contender so far, going 8-2 with a 2.24 ERA.
Now, he can also be an inspiration for deGrom. This will be deGrom's second elbow surgery, after having one in the minors. Eovaldi has also had two Tommy John surgeries, the first in high school and then a second in 2016. He hasn't been completely healthy since then -- he missed time in 2019 with "loose bodies" in his elbow and spent two separate stints on the IL last season with back inflammation and then shoulder tightness -- but at 33 years old, he's pitching the best baseball of his career.
With Gray also pitching well, Texas is second in the majors in rotation ERA in 2023, and in fact has been humming along in first place without deGrom for weeks already.
So, yes, the Rangers apparently have an ace they signed in free agency -- just not the one everyone thought -- plus a powerhouse lineup that will allow them to go toe-to-toe with the Astros in the AL West. Now they just need Eovaldi and Gray and company to stay healthy.
French Open 2023: Iga Swiatek and Coco Gauff set for rematch of last year's final in Paris
World number one Iga Swiatek will face sixth seed Coco Gauff in the French Open quarter-finals on Wednesday, in what is a rematch of last year's final.
Poland's Swiatek, a two-time champion in Paris, has won all six of her previous meetings with American Gauff.
The winner will face either Brazil's Beatriz Haddad Maia or Tunisia's Ons Jabeur in the semi-finals.
In the men's draw, Casper Ruud and Holger Rune will meet in a replay of last year's quarter-finals.
Fourth seed Ruud, runner-up to Rafael Nadal in 2022, will play Danish sixth seed Rune in the night session from 19:15 BST.
The winner will play either former world number two Alexander Zverev or Tomas Martin Etcheverry in the semi-finals.
Top seed and three-time champion Alfie Hewett faces his doubles partner and fellow Briton Gordon Reid in the wheelchair men's singles quarter-finals, before they pair up in the last eight for a match against France's Frederic Cattaneo and American partner Casey Ratzlaff.
In the quad wheelchair singles, Britain's Andy Lapthorne will face American David Wagner for a place in the semi-finals.
'This is a totally different year'
Swiatek underlined her dominance on the WTA Tour last year when she swept Gauff aside in last year's Roland Garros final.
Gauff was left in tears after losing her first major singles final, with Swiatek registering an emphatic 6-1 6-3 win to lift the trophy for a second time in three years.
Swiatek has picked up where she left off - she has yet to drop a set in Paris this year, with four of her seven set wins being by a 6-0 scoreline.
However, the 22-year-old says that last year's final will have little influence on her preparations.
"I think finals have kind of different rules," she said after her quarter-final win over Lesia Tsurenko, who retired with injury.
"Sometimes these matches are a little bit different than the other rounds that we play during the tournament because of the pressure and everything that's going on.
"This is a totally different year, [a] totally different tournament. I have to be ready, regardless of what happened last year."
Gauff, 19, is not fixating on 2022 either and expects to compete fiercely with Swiatek.
"I'm the type of mentality, if you want to be the best, you have to beat the best," she said. "I think also, if you want to improve, you have to play the best.
"The way my career has gone so far, if I see a level, and if I'm not quite there at that level, I know I have to improve.
"I think it would be almost cowardly to say that I want to not face the noise and not face the challenge, but I think that I'm up for it."
Rune aiming for less drama against Ruud
Ruud and Rune met in the quarter-finals of last year's French Open in a tense encounter.
Ruud ground out a four-set victory over Denmark's Rune but the two had a frosty handshake at the net, with Ruud later accusing Rune of yelling in his face in the locker room - which Rune denied.
The two met at the Italian Open in May and shared a warmer handshake after Rune registered his first win over US Open finalist Ruud in five meetings.
"Obviously there was drama last year and I hope we can make less drama this year," said Rune.
"He's a good player. I respect him. There's no problem. We're good.
"[It] should be a match without problems, hopefully."
John Turner stars with three wickets on debut as Hampshire hold off Middlesex
Hampshire 164 for 6 (McDermott 47, Hollman 2-12) beat Middlesex 159 for 7 (Holden 53, Higgins 43, Turner 3-30) by five runs
The 22-year-old captured the wicket of Middlesex captain Stephen Eskinazi with his first ball in the tournament, finishing with 3 for 30 as the Hawks successfully defended a modest total of 164 for 6.
But Hampshire's death bowlers held their nerve to ensure the home side remain winless in the competition, equalling their longest losing start to a campaign of seven defeats in 2006 and 2009.
Hampshire skipper James Vince, who had smashed a match-winning 88 not out in the sides' first meeting of the tournament, missed out this time after driving Josh de Caires' second ball tamely to mid-off.
That move paid off as the quick hrashed 31 from 21 and he and Ross Whiteley, with an unbeaten 28 from 20, hauled Hampshire above 150 but Higgins, with four consecutive dot balls in the penultimate over, ensured they fell short of par.
However, their total looked more than substantial after two overs of the Middlesex reply, with just two extras on the board and both openers back in the pavilion with ducks against their name.
Eskinazi was caught miscuing a pull to midwicket off Turner's first delivery and Joe Cracknell followed five balls later, leg before - but Holden and Pieter Malan kick-started the innings with a stand of 43 from 23.
Malan, having advanced to 18 with two powerful leg-side blows off Wood, attempted to do the same against Nathan Ellis just before the end of the powerplay and was caught in the deep.
Holden displayed a knack of picking out the gaps, carving Scott Currie to the cover boundary and clipping his next ball to leg for four more as Middlesex kept pace with the required run-rate.
The left-hander brought up his 50 from 26 balls and Higgins was a more than capable foil in their partnership, bisecting the leg-side fielders perfectly to register successive fours off Wood.
But Liam Dawson tilted the contest back in Hampshire's favour, tempting Holden to top-edge a pull to short fine leg and Turner claimed his third wicket before Vince raced from mid-off and dived to pouch a skier from Higgins.
Despite two boundaries by Martin Andersson to keep Middlesex in contention, a target of 15 from the final over proved too steep.
Nathan Sowter, Graham Clark come back to haunt Northamptonshire
Durham 162 for 6 (Clark 55, Heldreich 3-36) beat Northamptonshire 161 for 7 (Gay 53, Sowter 4-14) by four wickets
Clark delivered an emphatic performance at the top of the innings against the Steelbacks following his century from the opener. His knock of 55 provided the foundation for the chase that was threatened by three wickets from Freddie Heldreich. But, Durham held their composure to strengthen their credentials for a quarter-final place with their fourth win of the season.
The visitors solidly started in the powerplay without dominating the Durham attack. Gay was the early pacesetter, impressing with his striking down the ground, including back-to-back boundaries against Luke Robinson. Chris Lynn made a slow start to his knock but brought up the fifty stand with a fine cut behind point to the fence.
After clearing the rope for the first time, the Australian was starting to find his range, only to fall for 24 to a brilliant diving catch from Liam Trevaskis at long-off to hand Sowter the breakthrough. Sowter was then responsible for the second wicket as Josh Cobb got himself in a mighty tangle after surviving an lbw shout and was run out by Ashton Turner.
Gay continued to play the anchor role and brought up his maiden T20 fifty from 38 balls to position his side for a late surge over the 150-run mark. But Sowter continued to torment the Steelbacks line-up after taking five wickets in the reverse fixture.
He prised out David Willey and bowled Saif Zaib to put the clamps on the visitors. The leg-spinner ended his spell with his fourth scalp as Gay was caught on the boundary for 53, taking his ninth wicket in two games against Northants for the cost of just 29 runs.
The Steelbacks scrambled to a competitive total of 161 for 7 courtesy of useful late cameos from AJ Tye and Tom Taylor.
Northants missed a golden opportunity to set the Durham chase back in the second over when Taylor put down a simple chance at short midwicket to dismiss Alex Lees. The Durham skipper and Clark surged past their fifty partnership at the end of the powerplay, moving ahead of the required rate courtesy of a huge six by the latter.
Heldreich earned brief respite for the visitors by breaking the stand with his first ball, pinning Lees lbw for 30.
Clark followed in the footsteps of his team-mate Sowter by defying the Steelbacks again. After scoring his maiden T20 century at Wantage Road in the first match of the competition, he proved equally destructive on home soil, powering his way to fifty from 25 balls.
Heldreich kept the visitors in with a shout of hauling back the hosts working in tandem with a miserly spell from Saif Zaib, removing Michael Jones and the key wicket of Clark for 55. Zaib then cranked up the pressure when Ollie Robinson was caught on the fence, ending his four-over spell for one for 17.
Turner eased the tension for the hosts and all but carried them over the line with a vital knock of 31 from 18. Liam Trevaskis wrapped up proceedings by smashing Tye over the rope before the contest was ended by a wide.
Sam Cook four-for, Michael Pepper 48 help Essex sweep past Sussex
Essex 149 for 5 (Pepper 48) beat Sussex 147 (Bopara 50, Cook 4-20) by five wickets
Pepper was the Eagles' top scorer in 2022 with 439 runs and has belatedly started 2023, after a finger injury, with 63 against Somerset and a stylish 48 from 26 balls at Chelmsford.
Matt Critchley and Daniel Sams completed the win with 31 balls to spare as Sussex were condemned to a fourth straight defeat, as Essex chalked up their third victory from five matches.
In the chase, Dan Lawrence was caught at mid-on second ball but Pepper and Rossington got the Eagles off to a flier with 77 runs coming in the powerplay. Henry Crocombe was Rossington's victim with a variety of scoops and pulls to and over the boundary in a 21-run over.
Nathan McAndrew also was sprayed for 21 at the other end in a 10-ball over with Pepper using his crease to create angles to crash four fours.
Rossington flamingoed his fourth six but his stay ended when he turned Tymal Mills around the corner to short leg, before Robin Das and Paul Walter followed quickly.
Pepper popped Bopara back over his head but Shadab Khan pinned him lbw on the reverse sweep. But Critchley and Sams eased to the finish line with a 45-run stand.
Sussex chose to bat and lost Toms Clark, Haines and Alsop in the powerplay but Bopara steadied things with Shadab Khan and Michael Burgess.
Bopara played 67 home T20 matches for Essex, having played from the inaugural 2003 season to 2019, with all but one coming at the Cloud County Ground, Chelmsford. He knows the dimensions of the ground better than most.
On this occasion he targeted the leg side boundary on the Doug Insole Pavilion side, dragging Ben Allison for six from outside the off stump before to slog sweeps off Simon Harmer. He added 35 with Shadab, and after the Pakistani was bowled by Walter's first ball, Burgess helped bring 40 in 24 balls.
Bopara's 46th T20 fifty came in 30 balls but he departed when Shane Snater grabbed some air to catch at long-on.
Sussex would only score another 33 in the last six overs as Critchley had James Coles and McAndrew in the 16th over, Cook returned four-for as he had Fynn Hudson-Prentice and Burgess caught in the same over.
Sams got the wicket his tight bowling deserved when Mills chipped to a diving Harmer at cover as Sussex were bowled out for 147 with three balls unused.
David Wiese fifty lifts Yorkshire before Jordan Thompson five sinks Foxes
Yorkshire 156 for 7 (Wiese 50*, Rehan 3-21) beat Leicestershire 126 (Mulder 46, Thompson 5-21) by 30 runs
Beaten in their opening three North Group fixtures, Yorkshire Vikings extended the turnaround in their Vitality Blast campaign to four wins from four, defeating Leicestershire Foxes by 30 runs after the home side were bowled out for 126 at a chilly Uptonsteel County Ground.
Wiaan Mulder - playing solely as a batter after missing the last two games with a hamstring injury - top-scored for the Foxes with 46 but although Rishi Patel, with 36 from 25 balls, proved effective in the powerplay, the home side could not build sustained partnerships, dismissed with three balls left of the 20th over.
England's young legspinner Rehan Ahmed took 3 for 21 and left-arm seamer Josh Hull took 2 for 30 - both just 18 years old - as the best of the Foxes bowlers, but strike bowlers Mikey Finan and Naveen-ul-Haq took some punishment as the home attack leaked 69 runs in the last five overs.
Dawid Malan's hot streak ended in the second over as a leading edge to a ball from left-arm spinner Callum Parkinson saw him caught at short third man for 2 following his run of 95 not out, 83 and 81 not out in three innings. James Wharton cashed in on a couple of balls wide of off stump by Hull but there was another success for the Foxes as Naveen beat Adam Lyth's swinging bat and the Vikings were 42 for 2 from their batting powerplay.
Wharton and Shan Masood added 36 in 29 balls but three more wickets before the halfway point had the visitors on the back foot at 65 for 5.
Rehan, among the contenders for an England Ashes spot following the injury to Jack Leach, did his prospects no harm by bowling Wharton with one that skidded through before holding an easy return catch next ball as Jonathan Tattersall chipped one back.
The Vikings were in more trouble as Masood under-edged a catch behind off the tall Hull before Rehan claimed his third scalp via a catch in the deep on the leg side, well taken by Finan.
Yorkshire had no momentum at all at this point and were six overs without a boundary at 75 for 6 when Rehan finished his spell in the 13th over, suffering a further setback in the next over as Matthew Revis nicked one off Hull.
But a loose over from Finan gave Wiese a helping hand as he lofted a free hit over long-off for the first six of the Vikings innings and hammered a full toss for four, setting off a strong finish for Yorkshire side and a poor one for Leicestershire, who up to that point had given little away.
Wiese and Mike hit eight fours and three sixes from 38 balls after the fall of the seventh wicket, Mike clearing the rope off former team-mates Naveen and Finan to give his old county a tougher chase than they had anticipated.
On a roll, Wiese began the home side's batting powerplay with a maiden and when Nick Welch was grabbed behind the stumps at the second attempt off spinner Dom Bess, the Foxes were 1 for 1. They recovered to put 44 on the board in the opening six but also lost Lewis Hill, who skewed Thompson to third man.
At the halfway point, the outcome looked in the balance after a couple of tight overs from Chohan, with 93 needed from 60 balls at 64 for 2. When Patel - hit on the helmet by Revis on 31 - was leg before to Thompson for 36 from 24 balls, and Louis Kimber was bowled by Chohan sweeping, the Vikings looked favourites, an assessment quickly confirmed as Rehan thumped a short delivery from Revis in the air to Wharton at mid-off.
Mike held a steepling return catch to remove Arron Lilley, after which a flurry of boundaries by Mulder raised hopes that the Foxes could still make a game of it until Thompson dismissed him and Naveen with consecutive deliveries, both via catches in the deep. Parkinson departed in similar fashion off Mike and Thompson kept steady under another soaring return catch put up by Finan to complete his maiden five-for.
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