YORKSHIRE continue to take one step forward and two back in Twenty20 cricket after suffering a damaging top-order collapse in a six-wicket defeat to Birmingham Bears at Edgbaston.

The Vikings lost their fourth NatWest T20 Blast match in seven this year with eight balls remaining after failing to recover from 36-4 in the sixth over of their innings, having elected to bat first against the champions.

They scrambled to 132-7 thanks mainly to Jack Leaning's measured 44-ball 45, including two sixes, and were given brief hope through two Glenn Maxwell wickets with the new ball as the hosts slipped to 15-2 in the third over of their reply.

But Ireland captain Will Porterfield gave the chase impetus with 42 before Tim Ambrose and Laurie Evans finished things off with a steady fourth-wicket stand of 66.

All of this came after Yorkshire had hammered Nottinghamshire on Friday by 40 runs having posted 209-4.

Vikings captain Andrew Gale admitted: "It's so frustrating. We have the complete performance on Friday night and confidence is lifted. We turn up here and we're banging our head against a brick wall again.

"We just never really got going with the bat. I was disappointed with the way we went about our batting, considering how well we've batted in the competition.

"I felt 160-165 was going to be par on that wicket and we lost four in the powerplay, so you're chasing the game from there.

"What disappointed me from there was that we just scraped our way to 130 and I'd rather us get bowled out for 80 trying to get 160 and stand half a chance.

"We've got to find some consistency in this format – but we are by no means out of this. We're still only halfway through.

"Another win and you can go fourth. But we've got to put a run of wins together pretty soon or we will be out."

Gale admitted that he and the Yorkshire coaching staff misread the pitch prior to the toss, which was used for Birmingham's defeat against Leicestershire at the venue on Friday.

They thought it was going to be full of runs but instead it proved tough to score on, particularly against pace off the ball.

Gale was one of the four wickets to fall inside the powerplay as Yorkshire slumped, including the loss of Alex Lees and Maxwell to seamer Recordo Gordon in the sixth over.

Aaron Finch made 30 off 32 balls as he and Leaning tried to rebuild the innings but he never looked settled.

Yorkshire gave themselves an outside chance of defending their total as the Bears needed 79 from the last 11 overs. But they kept wickets in hand and managed to tick the board along at a good enough rate.

Yorkshire must now win Friday's clash with Leicestershire at Grace Road as they look to avoid yet another messy campaign.

Gale said: "We've got to treat every game like a cup final, that's how we've got to play our cricket. We've got to win two or three games in a row.

"I've been happy with our batting this year but that was just disappointing."