Surrey finished the Vitality Blast group stages in style, winning all three of this week’s fixtures, including the top-of-the-table clash with Somerset. The Curran brothers had their moments but it was Will Jacks who starred, making scores of 57, 52 and a round 100 off 59 balls against Sussex.
There were three other centurions: Alex Lees (101 not out) for Durham v Northamptonshire, Tom Latham’s 104 for the Bears against Derbyshire and a phenomenal unbeaten 139 for Essex’s Jordan Cox. Including eleven sixes, he almost single-handedly beat Hampshire to register only their third victory of a miserable T20 campaign. The South Coasters had already done enough to reach the quarter-finals thanks to a comfortable six-wicket triumph over a lacklustre Sussex, in which James Vince was left high and dry on 98.
Glamorgan had begun the week in the South group qualifying places but losing to a De Lange-inspired Gloucestershire opened the door for Kent. They duly barged through thanks to successes against Middlesex and Essex.
The North division was really tight but, with all the main contenders beating each other, the week’s results left the top four positions unchanged. Despite falling victims to Nottinghamshire, Lancashire topped the table thanks to wins against Durham and Roses rivals Yorkshire. Ex-England Test players Jos Buttler and James Anderson both contributed, but Chris Green delivered vital runs and six wickets.
While the Bears racked up 233-1 against Derbyshire, they were on the wrong end of a mammoth 240-6 compiled at Edgbaston by Northants. Matthew Breetzke top-scored with a 40-ball 85, while skipper David Willey combined a six-heavy 54 with a useful 2-27, having both Davies and Mousley caught behind.
Other notable performances included Worcester all-rounder Ethan Brookes’ 57 in 20 balls and 3-30 to despatch Notts, Farhan Ahmed’s hat-trick and 5-25 to destroy Lancashire’s tail, nine wickets for Derbyshire’s Ben Aitchison, including 5-25 against Yorkshire. In that same innings, his teenage Afghan colleague, AM Ghazanfar successfully restricted the attacking talents of Bairstow and Wharton to ducks across a combined twelve deliveries, bowling his four-over allocation for a mere five runs.
Wea six now face a six-week break before the knockouts. Champions Gloucestershire may be out but I wouldn’t bet against a Surrey-Somerset semi, and Somerset losing another final to Hampshire. It’s just the way of the world…
Team of the Week:- Jacks (Sur), Breetzke (Nor), Latham (BB), Willey
(Nor), Cox (Ess), Moores (Not +), Brookes (Wor), C Green (Lan), Ghazanfar
(Der), Aitchison (Der), Farhan Ahmed (Not)
