Wins for Yorks, Worcs, Middlesex & Essex in Blast
Jafer Chohan made his T20 debut for Yorkshire last season
- Published
Leg-spinner Jafer Chohan recorded the third-best bowling figures in Yorkshire’s T20 history to help them beat Durham and keep their Blast qualification hopes alive.
Elsewhere, Worcestershire, Middlesex and Essex picked up victories, while Derbyshire against Lancashire was abandoned without a ball being bowled due to rain.
Londoner Chohan, on his 22nd birthday, picked up 5-14 in a quickfire win, after Vikings skipper Shan Masood had made it plain they need to win their final four games to stand a chance of making the top four in the North Group.
The quality of Chohan’s performance was underlined by the fact that of his five victims, two were bowled, one was leg-before, one stumped and one caught behind.
Yorkshire reduced Durham to 40-5 although Ashton Turner (16) and Ben Raine (33) put on a half-century partnership before Chohan weaved his magic to remove Raine and then finish the innings on 107.
Adam Lyth (30) and Dawid Malan (29) ensured the outcome was a seven-wicket stroll ahead of Friday's Roses derby with Lancashire at Old Trafford.
In the South Group, Tawanda Muyeye’s brilliant 73 off 40 balls was not enough to rescue Kent after Essex had posted 187-3 at Chelmsford.
The hosts got off to a flying start as Adam Rossington (36) and Dean Elgar (33) posted 50 off the first six overs and after Paul Walter (46*) and Matt Critchley (31*) cut loose - including 17 off one Nathan Gilchrist over - Kent faced a tough chase.
Muyeye set about the Essex attack with relish as South African Eathan Bosch went for 24 off one over, with Marcus O’Riordan hitting 33 off 17 at the other end but Shane Snater (2-25) removed both with catches off his own bowling.
With Simon Harmer (1-20) and Sam Cook (1-25) putting the brakes on, Kent fell 22 runs short on 165-5.
Rare Middlesex win
A century partnership between Jack Davies and Martin Andersson laid the foundations for only Middlesex’s second win of the T20 season, to dent Gloucestershire's hopes of a top four finish and quarter-final place.
Middlesex have been rooted to the bottom of South Group and it seemed their game at Cheltenham College was heading the same way as they slumped to 32-4.
Davies (53 off 35 balls) and Andersson (52 off 39) rebuilt as Gloucester stalwart David Payne caught both of them and added three wickets of his own before a late flourish of 31 from 16 balls by Josh de Caires saw them post a formidable 181-8.
Skipper Jack Taylor did his best to get Gloucestershire on track, with three sixes and four fours in his 45, but Luke Hollman’s 3-37 ripped the heart out of their top order to secure a 29-run victory.
Rapids dent Foxes hopes
Matthew Waite took career-best figures of 5-21 to give the North Group’s bottom side Worcestershire a morale-boosting win in a close contest against top-four hopefuls Leicestershire.
New Zealand international Jimmy Neesham picked up his first wicket for the Foxes but Kashif Ali’s rapid 41 and Adam Hose’s 63, including two sixes and six fours lifted the hosts to a big total of 184-8 at New Road.
The Leicestershire reply got off to a bad start as Pears academy product Harry Darley (2-11), smashed for 36 by Lancashire on his debut at the weekend, took the wickets of England’s Rehan Ahmed and captain Peter Handscomb in the space of three balls as they stuttered to 22-4.
Louis Kimber (53) ignited the innings with five sixes in seven balls, former Rapids keeper Ben Cox added 55 and Scott Currie’s big-hitting brought 20 from the penultimate over.
But Waite removed Cox and Currie in a brilliant final over as Leicestershire were all out for 168.
Lancashire and Derbyshire are both in the hunt for qualification from the North Group but they were thwarted by steady rain in Derby which forced an abandonment without a ball being bowled.
Friday fixtures
North Group
Chester-le-Street: Durham v Notts Outlaws
Leicester: Leicestershire Foxes v Northants Steelbacks
Edgbaston: Birmingham Bears v Worcestershire Rapids
Old Trafford: Lancashire Lightning v Yorkshire Vikings (19:00)
South Group
Cardiff: Glamorgan v Middlesex
Canterbury: Kent Spitfires v Middlesex
Taunton: Somerset v Surrey
Southampton: Hampshire Hawks v Gloucestershire (19:00)
Play starts 18:30 BST unless stated