T20 Blast: Surrey close in on quarter-final spot, North Group still tight
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Laurie Evans is Surrey's leading run-scorer in this year's T20 Blast
Surrey closed in on qualification from the South Group, while Notts Outlaws and Birmingham Bears strengthened their quarter-final chances after another action-packed round of games in the T20 Blast.
Just four points separate the top six in the North group with most teams having three fixtures remaining and in a slightly less tight southern section, there are six points between the top six, with many having four matches still to play.
The top four from each group will go through to the quarter-finals on 6 and 7 July.
Worcestershire Rapids boosted their hopes of a knockout place with an impressive seven-wicket home win over Lancashire Lightning.
It allowed rivals Birmingham Bears to strengthen their grip on top-spot with a nervy two-wicket win at struggling Durham. However Yorkshire Vikings' last-eight chances were dealt a blow by a heavy 78-run defeat by Northamptonshire Steelbacks at Headingley.
Notts Outlaws, who beat bottom side Leicestershire Foxes, are second in the table on an inferior run rate to the Bears.
In the South Group, Surrey all-rounder Sam Curran blasted six sixes as Surrey hammered Glamorgan to stay on course for a home quarter-final and Jordan Cox smashed 82 from 44 balls to keep Kent Spitfires in contention with victory at Sussex.
Meanwhile holders Hampshire suffered a surprise loss at Gloucestershire in a rain-hit match.
North Group - Buttler fires but Lightning lose
Despite winning the toss at New Road, Lancashire slipped to 7-2 in the second over and were 38-4 near the end of the six-over powerplay before England white-ball captain Jos Buttler and Rob Jones (42) added 98 for the fifth wicket in 11.2 overs.
When Buttler fell for 74 in the 19th over, skipper Liam Livingstone came in and hit his first two balls for six but was caught attempting a third as the visitors limped to a total of 164-8 with Kiwi spinner Mitchell Santner claiming 2-19 from four overs and Pat Brown taking 3-32.
Jos Buttler's two fifties in the competition this year have both come against Worcestershire
Haynes and Santner helped the Rapids race to 94-1 in reply at the midway stage but four balls later Santner went for 49 from 27 balls, caught behind off Luke Wood.
Haynes brought up his half-century from 38 deliveries but holed-out off Jack Blatherwick with four overs remaining leaving Adam Hose (27 not out) and Kashif Ali (11 not out from four balls) to see the hosts home with 14 balls to spare.
At Chester-le-Street the Bears opted to bowl first and Chris Woakes soon ousted Alex Lees while Danny Briggs picked up 2-26 off four overs after dismissing Michael Jones (16) and Brydon Carse in consecutive deliveries.
Hasan Ali produced sublime figures of 2-15 from his four overs and picked up the scalps of Graham Clark (18) and in-form Ollie Robinson, who made 54 before holing-out off the final ball to end a blistering stand of 86 in the last 9.2 overs with Australian Ashton Turner, who finished unbeaten on 53 from 31 balls as Durham posted 146-5.
Bears openers Alex Davies and Rob Yates then cracked 40 apiece to begin the reply but they both departed and Glenn Maxwell (14) followed soon after as Bears began to falter and Ben Raine picked up 4-30.
A 17-ball span in the final overs saw the visitors lose four wickets for the addition of just nine runs but both Briggs and Jacob Bethell cleared the ropes in the final seven balls and Bethell ultimately saw them over the line with two wickets and three balls to spare.
Notts Outlaws bounced back from being bowled out for 99 at Northants by beating struggling Leicestershire Foxes.
After winning the toss, the Outlaws blazed to 133-2 in the 14th over but when Joe Clarke fell for a fine 72 from 41 balls, featuring eight fours and three maximums, the rock-bottom Foxes regained the initiative.
Tom Scriven claimed excellent figures of 4-21 off four overs and Callum Parkinson weighed-in with 3-22 as Notts added just 32 runs from the last 37 balls to finish on 165-8.
Nick Welch (32) and Peter Handscomb (28) gave the hosts a solid start but captain Steven Mullaney claimed 3-18 from his four overs as the Outlaws turned the screw.
Wiaan Mulder scored 38 from 26 balls but the Foxes fell 22-runs short on 143-8.
Northants chose to bat first at Yorkshire and openers Ricardo Vasconcelos (37 from 24 balls) and Emilio Gay (40 from 25) gave them the perfect platform, with 22-year-old Germany international Justin Broad then cracking an unbeaten 47 with good support from skipper David Willey (28) as the visitors posted 180-6.
Willey and Ben Sanderson then shared four wickets in the opening 32 balls to reduce the hosts to 22-4 in reply.
Tom Taylor took over, taking the next five wickets to fall to post figures of 5-28 from his four overs, including the competition's top-scorer Dawid Malan for 34 from 24 deliveries.
He was the only batter to make more than 13 as the hosts were skittled for 102 with 28 balls remaining to fall out of the top-four.
South Group - Curran continues fine form
Sam Curran made his fourth half-century in this year's tournament as Surrey boosted their hopes of a home quarter-final in the South Group with an 81-run demolition of Glamorgan.
The England all-rounder blasted 59 from 22 balls as Surrey posted 238-5 after being put in by Glamorgan, who saw their hopes of a top-four place dented.
Surrey all-rounder Sam Curran has scored four half-centuries in this year's competition
Opener Will Jacks bashed 69 off 40 balls and fellow opener Laurie Evans made 40 from 24 while Sunil Narine (36 from 19) and Curran helped the hosts add 88 from the last seven overs.
Chris Cooke provided the only real resistance in reply, collecting 21 runs from five Sean Abbott deliveries to reach 45 from 22 deliveries, only to become one of Chris Jordan's four scalps soon after for 49. Jordan claimed 4-21 from four overs while Billy Root (31) and Will Smale (27) were the only other contributions of note.
Fourth-placed Hampshire failed to capitalise on Glamorgan's defeat as they suffered an eight-wicket defeat at Bristol in a rain-affected match.
The Hawks lost wickets regularly and only Joe Weatherley's 37, 36 from Toby Albert and Ross Whiteley's unbeaten 41 from 25 balls hauled the visitors to a total of 158-7, with Tom Smith taking 3-26 from his four overs.
After a rain delay, Gloucestershire blazed their way to their target of 84 runs from nine overs with five balls to spare thanks to a deluge of sixes from Ben Wells, who made an unbeaten 43 from 22 and Ben Charlesworth's 29 from 15.
Hampshire are now only two points ahead of Kent Spitfires, who have a game in hand, after the visitors overcame Sussex by six wickets with eight balls to spare at Hove.
Sussex chose to bat and made a solid start, reaching 90-2 in the 11th over. However evergreen Michael Hogan claimed 4-31, including the key wicket of Sharks skipper Ravi Bopara for 53, made from 39 balls, as Kent stemmed the flow and the Sharks stuttered from 133-3 with five overs remaining to post 169-7.
The Sharks made a fine start to the reply, taking three wickets in the opening four overs - two of them for former Kent 2nd XI player Ari Karvelas.
But Daniel Bell-Drummond hung around to make 38 from 31 deliveries before an unbroken 77-run stand between Jack Leaning (28) and 22-year-old Cox, who struck six fours and five sixes - including two from the final two balls - as Kent made it four straight wins.
Upcoming fixtures (all games start at 18:30 BST unless stated)
Wednesday, 21 June
Northamptonshire Steelbacks v Derbyshire Falcons
Glamorgan v Somerset
Thursday, 22 June
Worcestershire Rapids v Notts Outlaws (17:30)
Yorkshire Vikings v Birmingham Bears
Gloucestershire v Sussex Sharks
Surrey v Middlesex
Essex Eagles v Kent Spitfires (19:00)
Friday, 23 June
Durham v Yorkshire Vikings
Lancashire Lightning v Derbyshire Falcons
Leicestershire Foxes v Northamptonshire Steelbacks
Birmingham Bears v Worcestershire Rapids
Glamorgan v Sussex Sharks
Kent Spitfires v Middlesex
Somerset v Gloucestershire
Hampshire Hawks v Essex Eagles (19:00)