T20 Blast: Lancashire, Worcestershire, Notts Outlaws, Surrey, Essex & Hampshire reach quarter-finals
- Published
Old Trafford match-winner Phil Salt is through to a sixth successive T20 quarter-final - four with Sussex, two with Lancashire
Lancashire, Worcestershire and Notts qualified from North Group, while Surrey, Essex and holders Hampshire made it through from South Group as the T20 Blast quarter-finalists were decided.
North Group winners Birmingham Bears will host the first quarter-final on Thursday against Essex, the last of the eight teams to book their place thanks to Kent's Sunday evening defeat by Somerset.
The other three ties will be on Friday between Somerset and Notts, Hampshire and Worcestershire, and Lancashire and Surrey.
South Group winners Somerset and the Bears were the only two teams through to the last eight at the start of the final round of games.
But comfortable Sunday afternoon wins for Lancashire, Notts and Worcestershire in North Group were matched by Hampshire's progress in the South, while Essex only made it thanks to last-ball drama at the Oval as they beat already-qualified Surrey.
Twice T20 victors Kent then failed to win at Taunton in the one evening game, giving 2019 winners Essex a safe passage and allowing 2005 winners Somerset to create a record in having won 12 of their 14 group games.
Hampshire will face Worcestershire at home on Friday, but despite reaching Finals Day a joint-record nine times it will only be the first time since 2013 that the Ageas Bowl has played host to a quarter-final.
Hampshire have only met the Pears once before in the Blast - a controversial rain-ruined quarter-final at New Road in 2015, which they eventually won due to bad light.
Mitch Santner had hit three T20 half-centuries before the start of this campaign - but he has now trebled that
North Group
Lancashire Lightning booked the other home quarter-final against Surrey, at Old Trafford, where they are now unbeaten in 21 home games.
The 2015 victors made it through with a comfortable six-wicket victory against Northamptonshire Steelbacks, which ended the visitors' own qualification hopes.
Phil Salt, a beaten finalist with Sussex in 2018 and Lancashire a year ago, smashed 74 off 51 balls as the hosts chased down a target of 138-7 with 20 balls to spare.
Worcestershire Rapids booked their place with victory over Derbyshire Falcons by 28 runs in the "winners go through" decider.
New Zealand star Mitchell Santner maintained his fine form with the bat, hammering 64 at Derby - including five sixes off 46 balls - in a total of 222-5, while Adam Hose smashed an unbeaten 42.
Wayne Madsen scored 63 but the Falcons were bowled out for 194, Pat Brown taking 3-35 and Usama Mir 3-38.
Injury-hit Notts Outlaws booked the fourth spot in North Group and a place in the last eight for a seventh time by beating Leicestershire Foxes by four runs despite a career-best unbeaten 83 from 50 balls from visiting South African Wiaan Mulder.
Rishi Patel made 37 for the Foxes, who looked favourites after posting 70-2 in the powerplay, but they could not build well enough on that start as two wickets each from Imad Wasim, Shaheen Afridi, Matt Carter and Calvin Harrison restricted them to 164-8.
Wicketkeeper Tom Moores top scored for Notts for the second match in a row with 68 from 40 deliveries.
As for the North Group leaders, Birmingham Bears had already booked their place in the last eight - but they completed their fixtures by breaking a record with a seventh successive T20 win.
The Bears had three times before won six matches on the trot in this competition, the last time when they won their only T20 title in 2014.
It looked like they would fail when Durham bowled them out cheaply for 141, but Henry Brookes took 3-15, and there were a couple of wickets each for spinner Dan Mousley and new signing Dominic Drakes as the visitors were limited to 133-9. That was despite Durham's last pair breaking the county's last-wicket T20 partnership record with an unbroken stand of 49.
It was also a best-ever return from a group by the Bears, whose return of 11 wins in 14 games bettered their 11 wins from a 16-game group in 2010.
South Group
Hampshire paceman John Turner's three wickets took his Blast tally to 18 in 2023
Three-times T20 champions Hampshire booked their quarter-final place thanks to a destructive bowling performance from fast bowler John Turner as they beat Gloucestershire by eight wickets.
Turner took 3-15, backed by Chris Wood (3-18) and Gloucestershire old boy Benny Howell (2-18) as the visitors were bowled out for 105.
Skipper James Vince then returned to the top of the T20 scoring charts with 55 not out - his eighth fifty of the season - as he and Joe Weatherley knocked off the runs with 33 balls to spare.
Essex dramatically gave themselves a chance of clinching that last place when they won off the last ball against Surrey.
Feroze Khushi attempted to hit a six and Chris Jordan tried to flick the ball back to Jamie Overton for a relay catch as it went over the boundary rope, but the ball dropped behind the rope for the winning blow.
That meant Kent had to win in the West country - and, with four overs left, they were still in with a chance of chasing down a Somerset total of 221-7. But the loss of big-hitting Joey Evison for 46 halted their march - and they fell short on 206-7.
South Group backmarkers Middlesex ended a miserable campaign with victory over Glamorgan.
Ryan Higgins hit 71 off 36 balls to steer his side to a total of 200-9, then took 3-20 to help his side win for the third time in four games, despite captain Kiran Carlson breaking Glamorgan's T20 fastest fifty record.
Carlson made 77 off 30 balls, of which the first 50 came off just 15, but Glamorgan fell well short on 151 to lose by by 49 runs and finish eighth in the table, just one place above Middlesex.
Quarter-Finals
6 July
Edgbaston: Birmingham Bears v Essex (18:30 BST)
7 July
Taunton: Somerset v Notts Outlaws (18:30 BST)
Old Trafford: Lancashire v Surrey (18:30 BST)
Southampton: Hampshire v Worcestershire (18:30 BST)