Summary

  • Yorkshire make record 227-5 & beat Notts

  • Surrey beat Essex by two runs

  • Birmingham Bears beat Worcs by eight wickets

  • Buttler hits 59 off 39 balls for Lancs

  • Wins for Lancs, Hants & Derbys

  • Glos & Middlesex tie early game

Live Reporting

Felix Keith and Tom Garry

  1. Essex win toss and bowl first

    Essex v Surrey (starts at 19:00 BST)

    Essex skipper Ryan ten Doeschate has won the toss and chosen to bowl first at Chelmsford.

    This is how they'll line-up in the first televised T20 Blast game of the season.

    Essex: Chopra, Lawrence, Westley, Bopara, Ten Doeschate (c), Zaidi, Foster (wkt), Walter, Harmer, Amir, Porter.

    Surrey: Roy, Finch, Stoneman, Sibley, Burns (wkt), Pope, S Curran, T Curran, Borthwick, Dernbach (c), Rampaul.

    ChelmsfordRex Features

  2. Gloucestershire and Middlesex tie

    Gloucestershire 182-5 v Middlesex 182-9

    Ryan HigginsGetty Images

    What an opening game of the T20 Blast!

    Gloucestershire set Middlesex 183 to win in Cheltenham and looked odds on to clinch the win with the visitors 119-8 after 15.4 overs.

    But Ryan Higgins smashed six sixes and four fours to make 68 from just 28 balls to earn his side a tie.

    Middlesex needed 11 to win from Benny Howell's final over, and one from the final ball, but Howell had Nathan Sowter caught in a dramatic finale. The other games have some act to follow.

  3. T20 BlastGetty Images

    Welcome to our coverage of this year's T20 Blast competition.

    Live text, in-play video clips and radio commentary of Essex against Surrey will start at 18:45 BST.

    In the meantime you can listen to ball-by-ball radio comms from the other five matches on the wireless or by clicking on the tabs at the top of this page.