T20 Blast Preview: Outlaws hope for more promising play, Edwards form needed as Birmingham Bears host Derbyshire

There’s another round of Vitality T20 Blast fixtures tomorrow evening with a number of sides hoping to maintain their starts to the campaign thus far.

Notts Outlaws v Northamptonshire Steelbacks

Nottinghamshire Outlaws enter their tie with Northamptonshire hoping to get their first set of points on the board in legitimate circumstances.

The Outlaws’ fixture at Headingley was abandoned without a ball bowled as they were forced to share a point with the Yorkshire Vikings.

Northamptonshire, meanwhile, enter the fixture off the back of a narrow seven-run defeat to Durham Jets on Friday evening. On that night, the Steelbacks fell to the loss following a fine performance from debutant D’Arcy Short.

The Steelbacks were mediocre with both bat and ball as they were unable to stop Durham from setting a target of 149 to win, while they were also reduced to 23-3 when the chase got underway.

Birmingham Bears v Derbyshire Falcons

Birmingham Bears will hope that the form Fidel Edwards showed in their seven-wicket victory over Leicestershire will be carried through into tomorrow’s meeting with Derbyshire.

Making his debut on loan from Hampshire, Edwards took wickets on his first, third and sixth balls to leave the Foxes at 2-3 after one over. It set the tone for the visitors who eventually stuttered to a total of 115 for 9 as Edwards finished with 4 for 22.

Similarly, Derbyshire make the trip to Edgbaston in similar form fresh from having beaten historic rivals Yorkshire by five wickets in their last outing.

Mark Watt and Billy Godleman were the star performers for Derbyshire on Saturday as they opened their account in the competition. Watt took 4-19 as the Vikings finished on 164-8 having at one point been on 77-6.

David Willey dismissed Fynn Hudson-Prentice early on but an unbeaten 70 from captain Billy Godleman saw the Falcons claim victory with just five balls left.

Sussex Sharks v Hampshire Royals

In the second meeting of the “Elclasiccoast’ between the two sides this campaign, both will be hoping they fare better than previously. Just last Friday the reverse match at the Ageas Bowl was washed out without a ball being bowled due to the erratic nature of the British summer.

The hosts are yet to get up and running in the tournament with their only fixture being the abandoned one against their south coast rivals. All being well, Afghanistan leggie Rashid Khan will get his first taste of T20 cricket for the Sharks after signing as their overseas player for the campaign.

Meanwhile, Hampshire are looking to bounce back after a narrow loss to Kent in their previous match. For most of the second innings, the Royals looked on course to gain their first win of the competition only for Kent’s Alex Blake (57*) to steal the show. Hitting successive sixes in the final over, Hampshire fell victim to a heroic, rallying display from the Spitfire batsman.