Twenty 20 Blog

29th of May saw a couple of relatively close games in the North and the South division, as well had the defending champions go down for the third time in a row to diminish their chances of making it to the quarter-finals to almost close to negligible.

North Division

The war of the roses saw Yorkshire go down to Lancashire rather easily, after it had won the toss and elected to bat first. The slowness of the pitch, combined with some really poor stroke-play saw Yorkshire collapse to 111/8 in their 20, thanks mainly to their Kolpak-signing, Jacques Rudolph (38), who batted through the inning. He had no support as the batsmen struggled against Sajid Mahmood – this season’s quickest bowler so far – and skipper Glen Chapple. Former English skipper Michael Vaughan scored 16, before being scalped by Chapple. In response, Tom Smith and Paul Horton warded off any early efforts to woo them into playing strokes, while Steven Croft hit an unbeaten 40 to guide Lancashire through.

It was an important game for Durham and Leicestershire, with the latter going into the game without a win. But Durham’s last-ball loss meant that they share the bottom slot with Yorkshire and Leicestershire. They managed to score a reasonable 144/8 in their twenty overs, after it initially they may not get even 120. But the late sparkle sown by Gareth Breese – 37 in 15 with seven boundaries and a six – also meant that the pitch had considerably eased up. Debutant Alex Wyatt bagged 3/14 in his four overs. Leicestershire’s reply was good, as former English stumper, Paul Nixon combined with James Allenby to score 53 apiece, but for some reason they could not accelerate in the end and were left with seven runs to win off the final two deliveries. Jacques du Toit then smashed a six to equal the score and smashed a boundary off the last delivery and won his team the game.

The third game of the North Division saw England’s latest spinning hope, Graeme Swann, make a mincemeat of the Derbyshire bowling with a 47-ball 90. Greg Smith and West Indian import, Wavell Hinds had earlier combined to get to a pretty-looking 158/5 in their twenty overs – both getting to a half-century each – with Swann leaking for a worrying 47 runs in his four overs. But he more than compensated that with an unbeaten 112-run partnership to lead Nottinghamshire to an easy eight-wicket win with more than four overs to spare and achieve their first win.

Midlands/Wales/West Division

Northamptonshire won their second successive game when they convincingly beat Glamorgan at home by 40 runs to share the top slot in the Midlands/Wales/West Division with Somerset. Batting first, Northamptonshire piled up 195/3 in their stipulated overs, thanks to a 37-ball 64 by opener Ian Harvey and his 59-run association with Riki Wessels. Chasing the highest score of the tournament so far, Harvey stuck again with three wickets in his four overs to cap a fine all-round performance and lead his team to a comfortable win.

Gloucestershire recorded their first win in the competition, getting better of top-placed Somerset by 21 runs at Taunton. Craig Spearman led the Gloucestershire run-glut with an entertaining 29-ball 51, and combined with Richard Dawson’s 27 that came off 20 deliveries score 162/8 in 20 overs. The Somerset chase never got off the ground and they managed only 141/5 in the 20, despite Peter Trego’s 32-ball 44.

Warwickshire also roped to an easy, seven-wicket win over Worcestershire in an away game. Worcestershire’s inning revolved around the knock of 73 by opener Steve Davies but they were laid low by eight of the remaining nine batsmen, who failed to get to double figures. In reply, James Troughton and Jonathon Trott piled a half century each, and despite Ian Bell’s failure, won with 10 balls and seven wickets to spare.

South Division

Defending champions, Middlesex, were handed their third successive drubbing, this time by previous year’s runners-up, Kent, who first restricted them to 104/6 and then surpassed the total with relative ease. The sluggish-looking pitch at Canterbury had Middlesex lose their top order for almost next to nothing, but a fighting 31 by last season’s hero, Tyron Henderson got them to beyond 100. Ryan McLaren equalled that for Kent and by the time he was out, the team was only 18 runs off the victory.

An exciting photo-finish had Essex winning their tie against Surrey and getting to the top of the points table. Scott Newman carried his bat for an unbeaten 81 and guided Surrey to 165/5 in the twenty overs, but Ravindra Bopara’s newly found form meant that Essex’s inning was propped up by his 41-ball 53. One run was needed off the last couple of deliveries when Grant Flower hit the winning boundary to seal Essex’s win.

Sussex easily thwarted Hampshire’s challenge with an eight-wicket win that had almost three overs to spare. Hampshire stuttered to 122/7 in their twenty with only Michael Carberry scoring 36. Chris Nash then hit a fifty and the winning six to guide his team to the win; Luke Wright and Dwayne Smith giving him ample support with 28 and 31 respectively.

By Suneer Chowdhary, Twenty20Blog.co.uk