JORDAN THOMPSON had only one word to describe Saturday’s Vitality Blast clash with Derbyshire. “Bittersweet.”

Yorkshire were beaten at Chesterfield, a game in which all-rounder Thompson smashed 50 off 27 balls - his maiden first-team fifty in any format.

The 22-year-old helped the Vikings recover from 77-6 to 164-8 by hitting five sixes. Then, bowling the penultimate over with Derbyshire needing 19, he conceded 15.

Still, he and the rest of the Vikings camp are refusing to get too down about the defeat, which came hot on the heels of Friday’s No Result against Nottinghamshire at Emerald Headingley, and they are in confident mood ahead of a key three days in their North Group campaign.

Tomorrow, they visit Grace Road to tackle Leicestershire Foxes (6.30pm) and then host Roses rivals Lancashire Lightning in a sold out fixture at Headingley on Thursday.

“They are two massive games. It’s T20 and they can go either way,” said Thompson. “But we are very confident in our skills and ability to get two points from both of those games.

“There were some positives, but we know we missed an opportunity.

“We’ll come back on Tuesday night and look to fire.

“Thursday will be a great night with a massive crowd, as it always is. Tuesday night’s first though. We’ll get the job done there and move on.”

On Saturday’s game, he said: “We got ourselves into a bit of a rut but came out on the other side of it and felt at halfway like we’d have enough.

“They got off to a flyer and we dragged it back again.

“Being honest with myself, that penultimate over, I probably miss-executed my skills having done well in the middle overs.

“I’m always hard on myself. I’d always rather come out with two points and a win than get 50 off 27 balls. That’s the way I’ll always be.

“You have to be hard on yourself if you want to improve as a cricketer and also, as a team, if you want to go far in this tournament.

“We’ve got 12 games to make a big effort to get into the knockout stages and then to Finals Day.

“It was a disappointing result, but we’re not panicking by any stretch.

“If you’re panicking at this stage, you won’t go very far in the whole tournament.

“It didn’t help that we lost Matthew Fisher to a dislocated shoulder, especially on that pitch. The spinners bowled very well to be fair, but for seamers it was sticking in if you hit the pitch.

“I’m absolutely gutted for Fish.

“I said to him in the changing room afterwards, ‘You must have done something bad in a past life to be as unlucky as you are’.

“Every time he gets back, something else happens. And they’re freak injuries. They are things that happen only once in a while - diving to save a boundary and his shoulder pops out.”

Thompson’s knock, with help from Jonny Tattersall (39), gave Yorkshire a good chance of beating Derbyshire, and he added: “I was really pleased with how I played.

“It kind of led on from a second-team game last week (Warwickshire at Headingley) when I played a similar knock, 68 off 34 balls.

“I found myself at the crease a bit earlier than we’d have liked, but it was a matter of staying there with Tatts and running them ragged before taking them down.”

Leicestershire have also had a No Result and a defeat, the latter to Birmingham, so far.