It’s
been a busy week of Vitality Blast fixtures. In the North division, Yorkshire
and Derbyshire each played four matches, two of them against each other, with
the latter winning both. The Falcons also beat the Birmingham Bears but a clean
sweep was prevented by a nine-run defeat at Trent Bridge.
I’d
picked the Worcestershire-Lancashire clash as the big one, so maybe it was
inevitable it was one of three games to be completely washed out. In the end,
it was the Rapids’ Friday night home tie against Durham which was to decide
who topped the table. Durham had already made it five wins in a row with an
easy victory over struggling Northamptonshire, and seemed to be homing in on a
sixth when Ross Whiteley’s powerful innings of 60 was ended in the final over.
Ten were still needed off five balls, but Wayne Parnell required only three to
hit the 195 target and take Worcestershire to the summit.
Elsewhere, Derbyshire's Wahab Riaz and Yorkshire's David Willey were both in fine fettle with bat and ball but Mohammad Nabi provide the most explosive innings of the division. The veteran Leicestershire spinner didn't have a vintage week with the ball but he plundered eight sixes in a 32-ball 86 to carry his side to success against Lancashire.
In
the South, Somerset won all three of their matches, the most impressive being a
ten-wicket slaughter of Essex at Taunton. Johannes Myburgh thrashed 103 not out
from 44 balls to end Essex’s misery. Captain Lewis Gregory had earlier beaten
Middlesex almost on his own, striking 60 from 26 deliveries then taking 4-28. Jerome Taylor's 5-15 against Hampshire was the bowling achievement of the week.
Gloucestershire
had retained their lead after defeating Sussex by four wickets in a low-scoring
encounter at Hove on Wednesday but failed to consolidate n Friday night in
Cardiff. Helped by Craig Meschede’s career-best 77, Glamorgan had passed 200
and seemed to be cruising until Jack Taylor began peppering the boundary and
the crowd beyond. Van Gugten bowled him at the start of the final over, but AJ
Tye duly heaved two sixes. He needed three runs from the last ball but missed. That
left Kent to occupy pole position. Despite, or because of, three ‘No Results’,
they have thirteen points whilst Somerset’s superior number of wins gives them
only twelve.
However,
the greatest runfest of the week came at The Oval last night in front of a
sellout 24,000 crowd. It wasn’t as close as the Cardiff game but for huge
hitting it was unsurpassed. Paul Stirling’s 109 in 58 balls had propelled
Middlesex to 221-5. But, in Jason Roy and Aaron Finch, Surrey boast two of the
most electrifying T20 openers in the world. They don’t always click at the same
time but on this occasion they did. Roy plundered 84 from 37 before holing out
to deep mid-wicket. Meanwhile, the Aussie kept going. Having already broken the
county record for a fastest T20 fifty, he raced to three figures and was still there
on 117 when Nic Maddinson launched the ball over mid-wicket to clinch the
victory. There were still four overs remaining so God knows how many more runs
Finch might have accumulated had they been batting first!
Next
week’s potential highlights include Surrey’s trip to Somerset, the Roses battle
at Headingley, Derbyshire’s visit to Worcester and Kent hosting
Gloucestershire.
Finally,
before I go, a quick mention for the T20 Women’s Super League. Thankfully it
has been expanded this year, and there have been some fine performances in the
past few weeks. The Somerset-based Western Storm have looked a formidable
outfit, and with Indian Smriti Mandhana in sparkling form, may well retain
their title. She garnered almost 200 runs in her three fixtures, including a
61-ball century and then 52 not out from a mere 19, taking her six tally for
the tournament so far to sixteen. Watch out, Mr Finch, you have competition!
Team of the
Week:
Finch (Sur),
Myburgh (Som), Williamson (Yor), Willey (Yor), Mandhana (Wes), Billings (Ken
+), Gregory (Som), Wahab Riaz (Der), J Taylor (Som), Imran Tahir (Dur), Milne
(Ken)
