T20 Blast: Lancashire go top of North Group, Surrey remain unbeaten
- Published
Lancashire moved top of the T20 Blast North Group with Steven Croft and Dane Vilas steering them to a six-wicket victory over Notts Outlaws.
A 114-run partnership between the Lightning pair ensured they moved above Northamptonshire Steelbacks.
Surrey remain unbeaten and top of the South Group after a four-wicket win against Hampshire Hawks.
Somerset remain second, with their win over Essex spearheaded by an unbeaten 85 from the in-form Rilee Rossouw.
North Group
After losing Keaton Jennings and Josh Bohannon cheaply Lightning never looked back - with the partnership between Steven Croft, who finished unbeaten on 61, and Dane Vilas (55) guiding them to a comfortable victory with 10 balls to spare.
Notts had made a solid start batting first at Blackpool, with Ben Duckett (29) and Alex Hales (22) leading the way, and Samit Patel also weighing-in with 45 from 36 balls.
But Lightning checked their progress by taking three wickets for six runs at the three-quarter stage of the innings, before captain Dan Christian steadied the ship with 30 from 14 balls to guide the Outlaws to 179-7.
Derbyshire moved into fourth, level on points with Birmingham Bears, after wrapping-up a seven-wicket victory at Edgbaston.
Opener Shan Masood's calm batting performance saw him end unbeaten on 45, with his steady stand complemented by the explosive Wayne Madsen, who took on the run-scoring responsibility, hitting five fours and three sixes in his 55.
Olly Stone and Carlos Brathwaite picked up late wickets but the damage had already been done and Masood and Brooke Guest completed the chase with 11 balls remaining.
Sam Hain had earlier starred with the bat to steer the Bears to 159-7. Batting at four, Hain finished unbeaten with 73 from 40 balls, to help his side recover from losing three early wickets.
It was Hain who held the innings together as the next highest scorer was Adam Hose with 20, with Sam Connors bowling well for Falcons, picking up 3-25 from his three overs.
Teenage spinner Rehan Ahmed starred as Leicestershire bowled out Durham inside 17 overs to cruise to a 51-run win.
The 17-year-old took 4-22, aided by Callum Parkinson's 3-16, as the Foxes bowled out Durham for 106 in a bitterly disappointing display from the hosts at Chester-le-Street.
Paul Coughlin (22) threatened to make inroads before falling to Wiaan Mulder and the innings ended with Nathan Sowter being stumped as he went for a big heave.
Some big hitting from Mulder late in the Foxes innings had earlier pushed Leicestershire to 157-9, after they got off to a disastrous start themselves when opener Harry Swindells was run out without scoring.
Man of the match Mulder struck 54 after the top order, aside from Nick Welch (37), failed to fire, with Durham's AJ Tye doing the damage with the ball, taking 5-38 from his four overs.
South Group
Unbeaten Surrey made it eight wins from nine games, the other being no result, in a four-wicket win over Hampshire.
Jamie Overton and Gus Atkinson each took two wickets as Surrey restricted Hampshire to 151-7.
Opener James Vince had reached 30, leaving him on 399 runs in this year's T20 Blast, when he was dismissed by Overton, before James Fuller, who top-scored with 39 for the Hawks, added some much-needed late runs to push the total up.
Surrey opener Will Jacks departed early but Laurie Evans (29) and James Smith (25) steadied the nerves.
England's Rory Burns, batting at five, hit an unbeaten 21 from 24 balls, and Kieron Pollard top-scored with 34, before captain Chris Jordan guided his side to a win which keeps them top of the group.
Somerset's in-form batsman Rossouw struck his highest score of the season with 85 not out, in a spectacular display of hitting, to help Somerset to an eight-wicket victory over Essex.
The South African is now this season's T20 Blast highest scorer with 437 runs in nine matches, and bludgeoned five fours and seven sixes as he reached 85 in 36 balls.
His partnership with Tom Abell, who hit an unbeaten 62, was worth 153 as Somerset passed Essex's total of 188-5 in 17.3 overs.
The win ensures the West Country side keep up the pressure on Surrey at the top of the group.
Michael Pepper was outstanding with the bat for third-placed Essex, smashing 10 fours and three sixes in an unbeaten 86 at Chelmsford.
Paul Walter was also in destructive mood and smashed five sixes in his 58 before being dismissed by Jack Brooks (2-23) with the duo's partnership worth 87 runs, which would ultimately be in vain.
A half-century from Colin Ingram gave Glamorgan a four-wicket win over Sussex Sharks despite the efforts of Tymal Mills, who took 3-30.
Sussex batted first and lost Mohammad Rizwan and Ali Orr cheaply, before Luke Wright's knock helped them rebuild at Sophia Gardens.
Wright fell to Dan Douthwaite, four runs short of a half-century, but his partnership with Tom Alsop (34) put on 87 runs for the fourth wicket.
Ravi Bopara only scored two from seven balls before being dismissed by Michael Neser, the pick of the Glamorgan bowlers with 3-24, as the Sharks posted 149-8.
Ingram's 57 and Sam Northeast's 35 pushed the Glamorgan total on, with Mills' wickets not quite enough to avoid defeat as the hosts got home with an over to spare.
Kent remain bottom of the group as they were handed their eighth defeat in 10 matches, with a seven-wicket loss to Middlesex at Lord's.
Kent opener Zak Crawley's batting problems continued as he fell for 11, with fellow opener Joe Denly (10) also failing to fire.
The England men had both departed inside the opening four overs, with Sam Billings (29) following, as Middlesex took wickets at regular intervals to stifle any building momentum for the visitors and restrict them to 141-9.
Middlesex skipper Stevie Eskinazi started the run-chase well with 28 before being dismissed by Fred Klaassen, but it was the partnership between John Simpson (46) and Joe Cracknell (43) which made it a comfortable chase as the hosts reached the total inside 18 overs.
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