Willey demolishes Outlaws - T20 Blast round-up
David Willey was in the Northants Steelbacks side that won the T20 Blast in 2013
- Published
Captain David Willey smashed 79 off just 34 balls as Northants Steelbacks beat Notts Outlaws by eight wickets on the first Friday night of this season's T20 Blast competition.
Willey took 23 off an Olly Stone over and then hit Calvin Harrison for four successive sixes before falling to the spinner as they chased down a target of 155 to back up Thursday's win against Derbyshire.
Jamie Smith made 76 off 38 balls as Surrey totalled 200-8 in their victory over Glamorgan at Sophia Gardens, and Tom Abell hit 55 as last year's winners Somerset defeated Essex by four wickets.
Elsewhere, Matt Parkinson took a hat-trick as Kent beat Middlesex and there were also victories by Worcestershire, Birmingham Bears, Leicestershire and Sussex.
It was not a great night for the England batters not with the World Cup T20 squad.
Surrey's Ollie Pope was out for a third-ball duck and Joe Root managed only three from nine deliveries for Yorkshire - but Kent's Zak Crawley made 26 off 14 against Middlesex.
Northants set early pace in North Group
Notts Outlaws lost Alex Hales in the second over after being put in by Northants at Trent Bridge, but looked set for a decent total following a second-wicket stand of 95 in nine overs between Jack Haynes (51 off 32 balls) and Joe Clarke (48).
Both were caught in the deep off Saif Zaib (3-12) and George Scrimshaw (3-16) finished off the innings as the home side collapsed from 104-1 to 154 all out.
It was nowhere near enough as former England all-rounder Willey - who hit seven sixes in all - and Matthew Breetzke put on 102 in eight overs.
The South African finished the game with 6.4 overs to spare with a boundary to reach 51 not out off 30 balls as the Steelbacks, on 157-2, made it two wins from two.
At New Road, 2018 winners Worcestershire Rapids timed their run-chase to perfection as they beat Lancashire Lightning by five wickets.
Steven Croft made 52 not out off 33 balls, sharing an unbroken stand of 59 with Chris Green (31 off 18) as the visitors totalled 169-5 having recovered from 13-3.
But skipper Brett D'Oliveira (61) and Matthew Waite (29) began the chase in positive fashion.
D'Oliveira's 47-ball knock was ended by Green in the 17th over, leaving the Rapids on 148-5, but Tom Taylor hit a six off Tom Aspinwall to take them to 172-5 with three balls remaining.
Birmingham Bears cruised to a comfortable seven-wicket win at the Riverside after bowling out Durham for just 101.
Hassan Ali took 3-20 and Danny Briggs and Richard Gleeson claimed two wickets each, and although the home side stuck to their task in the field, the Bears reached 105-4 with 23 balls to spare as Sam Hain (27 not out) hit a four off Callum Parkinson.
Joe Root has not been part of England's T20 sides since 2019
At Grace Road, Sol Budinger raced to 50 off 22 balls as Leicestershire Foxes beat Yorkshire Vikings by seven wickets.
Root and Dawid Malan both failed for the Vikings, but Shan Masood's 45 in a stand of 50 with Donovan Ferreira (26) enabled them to post 151-7 despite figures of 3-28 by paceman Josh Hull.
Budinger and Rishi Patel (30 off 18) began the chase by sharing 79 for the first wicket and although they fell in consecutive overs, the Foxes reached 155-3 at the start of the 15th with Wiaan Mulder 28 not out off 17 balls.
Somerset off to winning start in South Group
Dean Elgar's 77 for Essex was his 13th half-century in T20 matches
Defending champions Somerset put Essex in at Taunton, but Dean Elgar's 77 off 51 balls, including two sixes and eight fours, led the visitors to a competitive score of 193-6, well supported by Adam Rossington (32) and Jordan Cox (30).
Will Smeed (39 off 16) and Tom Banton (21) gave Somerset a racing start to their reply, but at 127-4 in the 14th over the game was in the balance.
Abell (55 off 36) and Lewis Gregory (44 off 20) put on 60 in five overs and although both fell to Paul Walter in the space of three balls, Somerset reached 197-6 off 19.1 overs.
Kent Spitfires enjoyed an ultimately comfortable 98-run win over Middlesex after Joe Denly's 56 off 33 balls helped them to 205-8, despite Luke Hollman's fine figures of 3-27.
Middlesex were all out for 107 in the 15th over as leg-spinner Parkinson dismissed Jack Davies, Tom Helm and Henry Brookes with the first three balls of his third over - two of them caught by Australian signing Xavier Bartlett, who also took his first wicket for the club, having Hollman caught for 23.
Surrey made exactly 200 against Glamorgan, with Smith hitting eight sixes in his innings, and then reduced the Welsh county to 30-3 in reply.
Australia's Marnus Labuschagne scored 58 off 34 balls, with a six and eight fours, as he and Colin Ingram (50) added 99, but the loss of both in the 15th and 16th overs - with Ingram run out by Pope's throw - left Glamorgan with too much to do.
Chris Cooke hammered three sixes in an unbeaten 40 off just 15 balls, but they finished on 181-7 to lose by 19 runs.
The night's most nailbiting finish came at Hove where Sussex beat Gloucestershire by three wickets with a bye off the final ball of the game.
Captain Jack Taylor made 52 off 35 balls in a score of 167-8 by the visitors, with Tymal Mills taking 4-25 for Sussex.
The Sharks then fell to 29-3 and 53-4, but Fynn Hudson-Prentice (47) and John Simpson's quickfire 36 left them needing 10 off the final over.
After Hudson-Prentice fell to the first ball of the 20th over, Jack Carson struck his second ball for six and they scraped home on 168-7.
Weekend fixtures
Saturday, 1 June (all start times BST)
Edgbaston: Derbyshire Falcons v Leicestershire Foxes (14:30)
Edgbaston: Birmingham Bears v Notts Outlaws (18:30)
Sunday, 2 June
Old Trafford: Lancashire Lightning v Derbyshire Falcons (12:00)
Southampton: Hampshire Hawks v Kent Spitfires (13:00)
Cardiff: Glamorgan v Sussex Sharks (14:30)
Northampton: Northants Steelbacks v Yorkshire Vikings (15:30)
Chelmsford: Essex v Middlesex (16:00)
The Oval: Surrey v Somerset (18:00)