Surrey won the toss on a muggy night and elected to field. Their decision was rewarded instantly when Will Jacks struck with his third delivery in the opening over of the match when Adam Lyth chipped the ball straight to midwicket without scoring.
Worse was to follow for Yorkshire when Finn Allen(3) chipped Dan Worrall straight to short midwicket off the Australian’s third ball to leave Yorkshire 9-2 after only nine deliveries.
It was down to Tom Kohler—Cadmore and David Willey to repair the earlier damage, with the pair taking the score to 59-2 at the half way point with Kohler-Cadmore 34 not out.
The pair had put on 93 for the third wicket on a slow pitch when Willey(30) perished in the deep of Narine in the 15th over. Shortly afterwards Kohler-Cadmore was taken at long on for 62 which came off 48 balls to leave Yorkshire 108-4 in the 16th over.
The visitors were indebted to Shadab Khan and Will Fraine who increased the scoring rate with a flurry of boundaries at the end of the innings with Khan(21) taken behind off Atkinson for his second wicket of the evening to finish with figures of 2-28 off his four overs.
Fraine’s bright and breezy cameo innings of 32 not out of 14 balls gave the visitors a total that gave them brief hope of defending as Yorkshire closed their twenty overs on 160-5.
In pursuit of 161 to win, Surrey lost Jacks(1) to Willey’s sixth delivery in the opening over when the opener sliced to third man.
After a tight opening three overs where Yorkshire conceded only 11 runs, Tom Curran and Rory Burns opened their shoulders with 22 runs coming of an over from Matt Revis.
The pair added a half century stand before Pakistani leg break bowler Shadab Khan struck in his second over when Burns(28) played all around a delivery that kept low.
Khan- who up until today- has had a disappointing Blast campaign, struck again when Pope(11) was caught at deep square leg.
Yorkshire’s skipper David Willey returned back into the attack and immediately had Curran(36) caught at fine leg to leave Surrey in a spot of bother at 84-4 in the 13th over, still a further 77 away from winning with seven overs remaining.
Yorkshire by now were beginning to turn the screw with Bess having Hardie(3) caught in the deep.
The home side went into the final five overs requiring over 11 an over to win. Back to back sixes from Jamie Overton off the expensive Revis who went for runs off his four overs, reduced the target down to 44 needed of the last four overs.
From a position of going on to winning the game, Yorkshire’s bowling floundered in the final few overs with Evans- who was dropped on 18 and Overton edging Surrey closer to their target.
The returning Revis who had bowled three overs for 39 came back for his final over which was looking like a tight one right at the death before Evans hit a maximum off the final ball to leave Surrey five to win off the final over bowled by Jordan Thompson.
The first ball was a dot ball. Overton took a single off the second, with Evans also picking up a single. Three were required from three balls when Overton was run out with a direct hit from Kohler- Cadmore behind the stumps for a superb 40 coming off just 21 balls.
Next delivery Narine(0) fell first ball after perishing in the deep to a fine low catch from Fraine to leave Atkinson to face one ball with three to win.
Thompson held his nerve, with a delivery that went for just a bye as Yorkshire squeezed home by the narrow margin of one run to book their place in Finals day next weekend.
Surrey vs Yorkshire Vikings
Yorkshire Vikings 160-5 (20) Surrey 159-7 (20)
Yorkshire beat Surrey by one run
Vitality Blast T20 Quarter-Final Wednesday 6th July 2022
Peter Moore at the Kia Oval
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Wednesday evening will see the first quarter-final in this seasons Vitality Blast, when Surrey will be facing Yorkshire Vikings at the Kia Oval.
The inaugural winners of the competition Surrey are up against a side that have never won the competition before.
Both sides will b e without their captains, Chris Jordan of Surrey and David Willey of Yorkshire because of the forthcoming England T20I series against India.
A clash between two teams decimated by England call ups will see Surrey be without Sam Curran, Jason Roy and Reece Topley and Yorkshire without Harry Brook and Dawid Malan.
There is a chance that possibly Test players Ben Foakes, Ollie Pope, Jonny Bairstow and Joe Root could return in tomorrow night’s encounter. If so, a big Kia Oval crowd will welcome the chance to see the likes of Root and Bairstow in action after their recent exploits in the Test match against India.
Surrey topped the South Group after starting their campaign off with nine successive wins before a slight stutter at the end of the campaign saw them win just one of their last four games, which was enough to gain a home tie with one match to go.
Yorkshire finished fourth in the North group and have been incredibly lucky to qualify for this stage of the competition, by qualifying on a technicality.
Yorkshire were beaten by Leicestershire on Sunday by 60 runs, which should have been enough for the Foxes to qualify. But hours before the start, the ECB docked the Foxes two points for poor on field behaviour in a match against Northants on Friday.
Will Jacks is the current leading run scorer for the hosts with 448 at an average of 34.46 including five half centuries. Jacks has also managed 19 maximums in his completed 13 innings with 44 fours.
Already, the hosts have hit 14 half centuries between them with a very strong batting line up that bats a long way down.
With the ball, four Surrey players have already taken ten wickets or more so far in the competition with Jordan leading the way with 17. Sunil Narine has picked up 13 with the absent Topley 15 and Curran 11.
Yorkshire will be looking to Adam Lyth to continue his excellent form in the Blast having already passed 500 runs with five half centuries at an average of a shade under 40.
The Vikings will certainly miss the services of Brook who has hit 434 runs so far and will need to rely on other players to step up their game.
On the bowling front, Jordan Thompson has already picked up 16 victims in the competition but has a high economy rate of over 10.
Local youngster Matthew Revis aged just 20 has 12 scalps to his name and lookjs a fine prospect for the county.
One big disappointment for Yorkshire has been their much talked about overseas player Shadab Khan. The Pakistani leg spinner has scored only 79 runs in ten appearances so far this season and taken only seven wickets.
Voted Player of the Tournament in the Pakistan Super League earlier in the year, you would expect him to produce a performance of note for his county. Could this be his time on the big stage in a knock out match.
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Surrey booked a home quarter-final slot after defeating Kent at the Kia Oval in front of a full house of 30,000 people, with Jason Roy’s 27 ball 58 and Sam Curran’s 30 ball 50 leading a run chase in a high scoring affair that featured 25 sixes.
Surrey went into the game knowing that mathematically a point would be enough to guarantee them a home tie in next week’s quarter-finals.
The hosts won the toss and put Kent in to bat. New signing Australian Aaron Hardie was in the action straight away on his Surrey debut by taking a wicket with just his third delivery in a Surrey shirt when Joe Denly(5) mistimed a pull with the ball scooping up to mid-off.
Despite this early setback, 21 year-old Tawanda Sean Muyeye really took the eye. Playing in just his fifth T20 match he took a liking to the Surrey attack by smashing 22 runs off a Hardie over which contained three sixes.
The youngster had his right to remain in the UK approved by the Home Office in early 2021, shortly before he signed a professional contract with Kent. His family were refuges who left Zimbabwe.
An impressive knock of 41 off 29 balls including four fours and two sixes was ended when a smart piece of work from Laurie Evans at point ran him out after he was short of his ground going for a second run.
Dangerman for Kent Jordan Cox moved on to a half century, but when he made 54 he was taken in the deep by a fine catch above his shoulder from Jason Roy off the bowling of Jamie Overton.
Sunil Narine was as economical as always and in his final over got the wicket of the experienced campaigner Darren Stevens(13). However with his final five deliveries he did concede two maximums to dent his figures, eventually finishing with 1-26 off his four overs.
For Kent to post a competitive total it rested in the hands of Alex Blake. The 33-year-old finished unbeaten on 50 coming off 25 balls to guide Kent to a competitive total of 191-5 which could have been more, but for a superb last over bowled by Chris Jordan that went for only six runs.
The Surrey opening pair of Jason Roy and Will Jacks made their way to the middle with Roy quickly into his stride dispatching Denly’s opening over with a four through the covers and a maximum over deep mid-wicket.
The opening powerplay yielded 65 runs with Roy in typical destructive mode hitting a half century off only 23 balls including four fours and five sixes which included three legside maximums in one Grant Stewart over.
Roy’s batting masterclass was brought to an end when Qais Ahmad bowled the England opener for 58 coming off 27 balls including 50 in boundaries.
After the departure of Roy, Jacks(26) was stumped off the bowling of George Linde as Kent continued with spin.
Evans cameo knock of 26 came to an end when an attempted ramp shot was gobbled up by Cox to leave Surrey 129-3 in the 13th over, 63 away from victory.
A mix up between Hardie and Sam Curran led to a run out with the Australian out for 15, with Surrey 45 short of their target in the 15th over.
It was left to Sam Curran to finish the job off with a scintillating innings of 50 coming off only 30 balls including five sixes, one of which went into the third floor of the pavilion, before perishing in thee deep with four runs required to win.
Jamie Smith had the last word by hitting the winning runs, a boundary off Fred Klaassen to get Surrey over the line with nine balls remaining.
Surrey vs Kent Spitfires
Kent Spitfires 191-5 (20) Surrey 195-6 (18.3)
Surrey beat Kent by four wickets
Vitality Blast South Group Friday 1st July 2022
Peter Moore at the Kia Oval
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Somerset 161-8 (19.4 overs)
Somerset beat Middlesex by two wickets
Middlesex run of eight defeats in nine became nine in ten after Somerset made slightly harder work of a win at Lords.
The West Country county took a firm grip of second place in the Southern group and move to a T20 record of 9-4, the mirror opposite of their hapless London hosts.
For most of the evening, this had all the hallmarks of another miserable home defeat for Middlesex. They slumped to 60-4 off ten overs as Somerset bowled, fielded and caught like the table topping side they are.
The demise began when Steve Eskinazi holed out a very poor shot to at Roelof van der Merwe at mid off to give Josh Davey his first wicket. Max Holden followed soon after for 7 as he was caught on the boundary. Wicketkeeper Simpson holed out again on the infield for 8.
Max Harris took two wickets on his Lords debut
Even despite a dropped catch and mistimed shots falling just short of fielders, Middlesex were struggling.
When Joe Cracknell went for 25, the batting effort seeemed pretty much over. Middlesex reached just 60-4 at half way. Jack Davies then dragged a poor and wide delivery from Ben Green onto his own stumps. This bizarrely was the start of a recovery.
Luke Hollman dug in and became the first batsman to 30. He eventually holed out to the boundary on 41. Chris Green 44* used the long handle to add a late surge and Middlesex managed 100-2 off the last ten overs compared to that dismal 60-4 off the first ten. Ben Green took 3-38 but Somerset bowled six wides in fact handing Middlesex an extra over.
But for those gifts, it’s unlikely Middlesex would have topped 140.
Still, 160 looked a comfortable target for Somerset.
They started as Middlesex had, by giving away their first wicket due to a poor shot and an in field catch when Will Smeed surrendered his wicket for 6 off Tom Helm. Tom Banton took command but had to look on as another infield catch saw Rilee Roussow dismissed for 5 by young Max Harris.
Wallalawita eventually bowled Banton with his first ball for 39 to give Middlesex momentary hope, but even at 72-3 Somerset had plenty overs left. Tom Lammonby was soon caught by John Simpson for 7 off Harris, yet another of the high catches in the infield.
This may have been due to a slower wicket than it perhaps looked resulting in the ball coming on to the bat late, something Middlesex batsmen realised a little too late.
Josh Davey hit the nine runs Somerset needed off the last over in just four balls
Despite this, Somerset reached the 100 landmark in 12 balls less than it took Middlesex, 77 deliveries versus 89.
That left just 61 to get off seven overs and one ball, a smaller run rate than they had already achieved.
But after Lammonby’s dismissal, the boundaries dried up and just 23 had been added in 22 balls when Tom Abell was bowled for 36 by Chris Green at 118-5.
Somerset had seemed to assume an inevitability about the outcome and had been slowly nurdling as the run rate began to rise again.
While the boundaries dried up, the wickets did not. Aussie paceman Jason Behrendorff picked up Lewis Gregory, Ben Green and eventually Craig Overton for a three ball 12.
Overton’s dismissal however was bittersweet.
He had clouted two 6s with his first two deliveries and been caught on the third. With nine still needed, Davey hit another maximum and dug out the final three in the next two balls.
Harris took two wickets on his Lords debut and can be very proud of the nerveless supporting role he offered to Chris Green at the close of the home innings.
Defeat for Kent at the Oval kept Middlesex off the bottom of the table. They will now visit Gloucestershire on Sunday to close out their 2022 Blast campaign.
Somerset may lambast themselves a little for taking their foot on the pedal and making this closer than it should have been.
Their next opponents are table topping Surrey and a win will guarantee them second place in the table. It should be an enthralling game but they will have to curtail the wides to beat one of London’s better T20 sides.
Annie Chave – Cricket Columnist
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Last seasons winners of the Blast Kent find themselves at the bottom of the table, with Surrey sitting at the top of the pile with a three-point gap over second placed Somerset and having booked their place in the forthcoming quarter-finals.
Surrey go in to tonight’s encounter with Kent on the back of successive defeats against Sussex and Essex, both away from the Kia Oval.
The leaders have named a 16-man squad for this evenings meeting with Kent, with Jamie Overton back in the squad after being released from England. New overseas signing Aaron Hardie is also named in the squad.
Darren Stevens is included in the Kent squad for the first time in this seasons Vitality Blast campaign after recovering from a shoulder injury.
With Sam Billings keeping wicket for England in their current test against India, Jack Leaning will captain the Spitfires, with Jordan Cox in line to keep wicket.
The visitors will head across the water in a good frame of mind after defeating Sussex Sharks at The Spitfire Ground in their last T20 outing.
Joe Denly hit a half century with Kent coasting home by six wickets with seven balls to spare.
Denly has now hit 416 runs in the tournament from 11 innings in this season’s tournament, including a century against Middlesex earlier in the campaign.
In the bowling department, Grant Stewart is the leading wicket taker with 13 wickets closely followed by Fred Klaassen with 12 victims.
Kent’s spinners have also picked up their share of wickets so far with Qais Ahmad and George Linde(11) all bowling with an economy rate of under 8.00.
For Surrey, all rounder Will jacks leads the way for the home side with 422 runs, including 42 fours and 18 sixes.
Captain Chris Jordan is the hosts leading wicket taker in this season’s tournament, picking up 14 wickets with Sunil Narine contributing with both bat and ball- 12 wickets and 199 runs thus far.
Both Reece Topley and Sam Curran are also in to double figures in the wickets department with Topley’s best figures this season of 4-37 and Curran 5-30.
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Birmingham Bears 228/8 (20)
Worcestershire Rapids 84/10 (15.3)
After a shaky start, the Birmingham Bears flexed their muscles at Edgbaston and avenged their only loss of the campaign against the Worcestershire Rapids with a convincing 144 run victory thanks to an outstanding 110 run knock from Adam Hose.
Fans were still filing into Edgbaston as Mitchell Stanley skittled Alex Davies on just the second ball of the match, before following it up with the dismissal of Sam again thanks to a Moeen Ali catch. Two ducks, and a hat trick on the cards with just three balls bowled – there could not have been a much better start for the visitors.
However, Adam Hose arrived at the crease and immediately started pushing the scoring with some cultured yet aggressive batting, taking advantage of the short boundaries. The dismissal of Robert Yates for 20 seemingly had no affect on the Isle of Wight born all-rounder, as the hosts clocked up 100 before the end of the 8th over.
As the middle overs continued, Hose put on a batting masterclass with a delightful variation of brutish sixes and classy touches to make a boundary.
Dan Mousley played the perfect supporting role making 53 off 34 before being caught by Adam Finch from a Kashif Ali ball in the 12th.
As the wickets from the middle order continued to fall, Hose started to enjoy himself as the scoring was pushed well beyond 200 and the Bears were put in firm control of the encounter.
As the Rapids set about chasing the score of 228, Alex Gidman’s side were well aware of the necessity to take risks early doors, but also to build a partnership quickly. Whilst the visitors certainly took risk, they did not pay dividends as Ed Pollock and Brett Oliveira were dismissed after failing to connect with their big shots.
There was no solace for Worcestershire, who despite taking risks to try and kickstart their run chase, found themselves two wickets down and with a drastically below par run rate. Moeen Ali was the next victim of trying to force the issue before being caught off the Dan Mousley ball.
On just 49 runs headed into the 8th over, the game was all but lost already, but the nail was hammered firmly into the Worcestershire coffin when their top scorer Colin Munro was caught by Davies for 34 off 28, before Dwayne Bravo followed him straight back up the pavilion following his dismissal for a duck.
Kashif Ali was next to try and make the score more respectable, but he was gone after a mistimed sweep shot that saw a clear lbw, and following this, Ed Barnard and Gareth Roderick were quick to return as they were caught out for a combined score of nine.
The target was near on mathematically impossible for Worcestershire to reach, but Adam Finch and Pat Brown were tasked with prolonging the innings as best they could. Finch was skittled after 10 balls, and Mitchell Stanley was mercifully caught out after eight to end a dismal day for the visitors.
At 3-2 in the first over, Birmingham looked as if they could have been in a spot of bother early on. However, thanks for the most part to the partnership of Adam Hose and Dan Mousley, the Bears were able to turn a worrying predicament into an emphatic victory.
Some wild bowling from Worcestershire certainly did not help their cause, leaving many balls sitting in the pocket begging to be hit, perhaps indicative of why the Rapids have conceded over 200 runs on three occasions during this Blast campaign, only matched by Durham in the entire competition.
With a total of 228 to chase, it would be perhaps somewhat unfair to point the finger of blame towards the batting side of Worcestershire’s game, though their score of 84 was indeed the lowest of all teams in the 2022 Blast campaign.
Following Lancashire’s narrowest of all losses, Birmingham now top the Northern group in the T20 Blast, and currently would qualify as a top seed. Contrary to this, the nature of the Northern group has resulted in a group of teams bunched around similar points totals. As such, in theory Birmingham could still miss out on the Quarter-Finals all together, though it would require to beat Leicestershire convincingly and the Bears to suffer heavy losses in their last two games.
The aim of course will be to be as highly seeded as possible, and final clashes against Lancashire and Yorkshire will be pivotal in deciding who tops proceedings in the Northern group.
As for Worcestershire, they are all but mathematically confined to the bottom of the Northern section, and Kent’s recent win over Sussex has made it very likely the Rapids will finish the campaign as the worst performing outfit. Gidman’s side will have games against Lancashire and Nottinghamshire at New Road to put some respectability upon their 2022 Blast.
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]]>Essex 161-6 Middlesex 140-8
Essex won by 21 runs
Middelsex won the toss and elected to field.
Essex were defending just 161. They won by 21 runs and their victory was far more comfortable than that margin suggests
Although Cook’s triple wicket maiden was the decider at Lords, the gap between the sides in most aspects. notably catching and bowling containment, was apparent. Chasing 162 to win, Middlesex were 9-0 off two overs until the 24-year-old changed the trajectory of the match with a memorable six balls.
Cook dismissed Max Holden, Joe Cracknell and John Simpson, the last to a superb catch at third slip by Dan Lawrence, who was also the game’s top scorer.
Steve Eskinazi (43) and Jack Davies (41) put on 86 in 11.4 overs to steady the innings but did so too slowly and were unable to up the scoring necessary to meet the run rate as it increased.
As their side tried, five wickets were lost for just 13 runs and by the end, Middlesex were out of both batsmen and overs. It’s likely if you had extended either, they would still have fallen short.
Photo: Benj Gilbert
It was the North Londoners’ eighth defeat in the last nine games in this form of cricket and they fell woefully short of a very average target.
Batting first, Essex innings never really broke free of the leash in making that 161 although Dan Lawrence (51 off 35 balls) and Tom Westley (50 off 41 balls) made smooth 50s.
There was never sufficient crash, bang or wallop, and the 11 they took off the last three overs left the coastal county 15-20 runs short of what seemed like an average target on the wicket given the short Tavern Stand boundary.
The two Australians were the best of the bowling attack. Jason Behrendorff finsihed with 1-14 off his four overs and spinner Chris Green with 3-16 off three overs.
They restricted Essex to just 11 runs in their last three overs, a monumental achievement. But that 10 minutes if cricket was really the only period in which the home side could seriously have been said to be in control. Until Behrerndorff came in for a cameo once the match was effectively lost, Middlesex managed just eight 4s and two 6s, eight short of Essex boundary total.
The Aussie paceman’s three late 6s put a sheen on the scoreline that disguised the gap between the sides
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]]>Surrey made it seven wins out of eight and maintained their position at the head of the table by three points from Somerset after a comfortable seven wicket victory over rivals Middlesex at the Kia Oval on Friday.
The visitors total of 155-8 looked well short of par and so it proved as Surrey- despite being without three players on England white ball duty- cantered to victory thanks to a half-century from all rounder Sunil Narine.
On the hottest day of the year, with temperatures still nudging around 30% centigrade, along with a full house, the group leaders won the toss and put Middlesex in to bat.
Jordan Clarke and Will Jacks opened the bowling for Surrey, and it was Jacks who made the early breakthrough in the third over with just his third delivery, Max Holden(3) played a poor shot which resulted in a simple catch to Gus Atkinson to leave the visitors 8-1.
A bright and breezy knock of 19 from nine balls from Joe Cracknell was ended when he holed out in the deep off Dan Worrall. The prolific run scorer Steve Eskinazi was still at the crease and Middlesex’s hopes of posting a good score rested heavily on his shoulders.
The skipper had already hit 264 runs along with 35 fours and seven sixes in his eight innings so far and added another maximum to that total by depositing a full toss from Clarke into the stands.
Both Eskinazi and John Simpson were trying to rebuild the innings when disaster struck with a terrible mix up in the middle which saw the key wicket of Eskinazi(25) run out to leave Middlesex 69-3 in the ninth over.
The Surrey skipper struck with his fourth delivery when Simpson(25) mistimed a pull to get a top edge with the ball falling into the hands of Jamie Overton at mid-off.
Middlesex were certainly struggling to post a reasonable total to defend when Sunil Narine struck with Jack Davies(17) reverse sweeping the West Indian into the hands of Atkinson.
Chris Green made 14 before chipping Atkinson to Jordan at mid-off, before the Surrey captain almost hung on to a very sharp caught and bowled when Luke Hollman had made 24.
With three overs to go the visitors were getting bogged down with some good economical bowling from the hosts with Narine bagging another wicket when Martin Andersson(6) came down the pitch and was stumped by Jamie Smith.
It was down to Hollman(31) to anchor the Middlesex innings, but he fell off the last ball of the innings when he holed out in the deep, as the visitors finished their twenty overs on 155-8, what was a below par total.
The opening pair of Jacks and Smith were quickly in their strides when Smith(15) perished in the deep off the bowling of Jason Behrendoff. Jacks was particularly severe on Tom Helm by taking 18 of the fast bowlers opening over, including consecutive sixes.
By the time the powerplay had ended, Surrey were well on top with the scoreboard reading 7-1 with Jacks unbeaten on 40 and Ollie Pope 19.
Shortly after the powerplay expired the home side lost two quick wickets in six balls with Jacks entertaining knock ending when he was caught in the deep for a bright and breezy 43 off twenty balls.
Laurie Evans(5) stay at the crease was a brief one when he was also caught in the deep of spinner Thilan Walallawita to leave Surrey 85-3 in the eighth over.
By the half way point the home side looked favourites to complete another victory in the competition, requiring 52 from the final ten overs with Pope and Narine looking well set.
The pair added 73 for the fourth wicket, with Narine unbeaten on 51 off 29 balls and Pope 37, as Surrey cruised to a comfortable victory with 29 balls to spare to consolidate their position at the top of the South Group and keep their unbeaten record intact. However, for Middlesex it is another defeat in the competition, their sixth in a row.
Surrey Middlesex
Vitality Blast South Group Friday 17th June 2022
Middlesex 155-8 (20) Surrey 158-3 (15.1)
Surrey won by seven wickets
Peter Moore at the Kia Oval
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Jason Roy got the visitors of to a flying start by smashing 81 in 45 balls as Surrey set Middlesex 209 to win. The home side themselves also got of to a rapid start, but were pegged back mid innings with captain Chris Jordan leading from the front with four wickets and the ever reliable Sunil Narine’s miserly 2-28 saw Surrey to a sixth win of the campaign and maintained their unbeaten record so far.
After a light shower, the game was delayed by ten minutes with Middlesex winning the toss and inserting the visitors from south of the river in to bat.
Jason Roy and Will Jacks opened the innings for Surrey with Roy coming out swinging. His partner Jacks was more circumspect and when he had nine runs on the board he mistimed a slower ball from Jason Behrendorff and was caught at mid-off.
Middlesex were desperate to stop the flow of runs from the bat of Jacks, but got themselves back in the contest when Sam Curran(0) feathered a delivery from Toby Roland-Jones behind into the gloves of John Simpson.
Roy continued to dominate the Middlesex attack and raced to his half century off only 24 balls including two six’s and seven fours. The Surrey opener added to his maximum total by depositing spinner Chris Green into the stands on the short side of the ground.
Middlesex struck again when Martin Andersson took a sharp caught and bowled chance with Evans falling for 22.
Sunil Narine offered useful support with Roy before the west Indian chipped the ball straight to midwicket for a breezy innings of 25 off 16 balls.
The hosts were confident that they had captured the wicket off Jamie Overton after Andersson looked to have taken a stunning one handed catch. The Surrey batter didn’t walk with both on field umpires coming together and deciding the soft signal to be out. After a while the third umpire Richard Kettleborough deemed that his decision was not out with Overton surviving having faced a single ball.
The former Somerset all-rounder profited by moving on to a quick and breezy 27 made off 12 balls before falling to Behrendorff .
With Chris Jordan joining Kieron Pollard in the middle, Surrey added runs quickly towards the close of the innings before Chris Jordan(16) holes out in the deep off the last ball of the innings as Surrey posted a formidable total of 208-7.
Requiring a shade over ten an over the Middlesex opening partnership of Steve Eskinazi and Max Holden set about the business of getting the hosts off to a good start. Eskinazi decided to follow in the steps of Roy by swinging from the off. The skipper raced to 39 off only 17 balls as the pair put on 54 runs off the first four overs.
Jordan decided to turn to Narine- who’s economy rate so far in the Blast is outstanding- after the opening pace attack of Reece Topley, Sam Curran and Dan Worrall proved expensive.
However, it was the captain who made the breakthrough with his first delivery when Holden(33) holed out to square leg.
Shortly afterwards Narine managed to sneak a delivery through the gate of Eskinazi who went for a fine 47 off 21 balls, to leave Middlesex 83-2 in the eighth over.
Surrey started to turn the screw with the run rate increasing to a shade of 12 an over, Middlesex had to start taking chances. England’s white ball captain Eoin Morgan(5) perished at deep midwicket as the hosts reached 93-3 at the half way point.
Narine- who has proved to be a wonderful signing for Surrey- continued his excellent start to the Blast by grabbing the wicket of John Simpson(13).
Wickets continued to fall at regular intervals with skipper Jordan picking up two in three balls with Joe Cracknell(6) and Andersson(0) first ball as the home side went from 82-2 to 111-6.
Chris Green and Luke Hollman offered some brief resistance before Hollman(21) was brilliantly taken at backward point to give Jordan his fourth wicket of the night.
The South African Green remained defiant until the end with an unbeaten knock of 46 that saw Middlesex requiring an improbable 28 off the final six deliveries bowled by Jordan.
The skipper held his nerve with a final over that went for just seven runs as Middlesex fell 20 runs short , with Surrey continuing their impressive start to the competition and Middlesex falling to their fourth straight defeat after a promising start to the campaign.
Middlesex Surrey
Vitality Blast South Group Thursday 9th June 2022
Surrey 208-7 (20) Middlesex 188-8 (20)
Surrey won by 20 runs
Peter Moore at Lords
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James Bracey struck a fantastic 63 and Benny Howell took 3-34 as Gloucestershire secured a 5 wicket victory in the Severn Bridge Derby over Glamorgan at Sophia Gardens.
Sent into bat by the visitors, Glamorgan’s innings got off to a quiet start with only four runs coming from the first over which nearly saw captain David Lloyd run-out, narrowly making his ground while completing an ambitious single. The second over was much of the same before Lloyd’s opening partner Sam Northeast finally got a clean strike away, hoisting Glenn Phillips away over midwicket for the first maximum of the evening.
Lloyd joined in on the fun in the following over, pummelling 15 from David Payne’s second over as the pair raced to 26-0 from three overs. Gloucestershire continued to persist with spin from one end in the powerplay and Lloyd was only too eager to capitalise, punishing the slow left-armers of Tom Smith with another sumptuous cover drive to the boundary as the opening pair refused to let the bowlers settle.
Josh Shaw was the next bowler called upon and he was promptly milked for eight runs off his opening over, the pair picking up a smattering of singles while Lloyd muscled another delivery away over wide mid-on for another boundary. The powerplay ended with the Welsh side on 49-0.
Opposing skipper Jack Taylor continued to tinker with his bowling options in search of a breakthrough, however he would have been far from pleased when Zac Chappell offered up a chest-high full-toss for Lloyd to scoop away for four before the resulting free-hit was flicked for the third maximum of the Glamorgan innings in only the seventh over. Lloyd raced through to his half-century in the following over, sweeping Smith fine for another boundary as the hosts took control of the early stages.
Wily pacer Benny Howell was the next option for Taylor and he fared no better, Lloyd carving a delightful cut shot away for four before audaciously reverse-scooping him over short third-man for another boundary before Taylor brought himself on and nearly drew the breakthrough as Northeast miscued one down the ground, however a diving Miles Hammond couldn’t cling on to a difficult chance to leave the hosts 89-0 at the halfway stage.
Howell did eventually find a breakthrough in the following over however as he squeezed one through Northeast’s defences to claim the wicket of the former Hampshire man and break the stand on 90. This brought former South African international Colin Ingram to the crease and he wasted little time getting into the action as he hammered his first ball through the off-side field for another boundary.
After knocking Taylor’s following over for a smattering of singles, Lloyd decided to up the ante once more, scooping another four over short third-man before hammering a catch back at Howell to finally end his innings on 68 with Glamorgan in a strong position at 106-2 with seven overs left.
Phillips returned for the following over and he would keep runs to a minimum, leaking only five singles before the man known affectionately as ‘Kingram’ would try and loft him for another maximum but only succeed in picking out Ian Cockbain on the boundary. Winter recruit Eddie Byrom joined former captain Chris Cooke in the middle at the fall of Ingram’s wicket and a welcome six would come in the following over as Cooke muscled Howell away over the legside before slamming a four straight back over the bowlers head from the very next delivery.
Smith had looked one of the more-threatening Gloucestershire bowlers all evening and with his penultimate delivery, he would pick up a much-deserved wicket as Cooke attempted to sweep him away for another maximum but could only miscue the ball straight up and offer the bowler a fairly simple catch as Glamorgan slipped to 129-4 with four overs left.
All-rounder Dan Douthwaite was the new man to the crease and he would succeed where Cooke failed, hammering David Payne into the River Taff from the first delivery of the 17th over before Payne would send his leg-stump out the ground with the very next delivery. Kiran Carlson was next to perish attempting a big shot, top-edging Phillips to Hammond at deep-midwicket as the Welsh side’s innings looked in danger of petering out with a bit of a whimper.
Byrom was still there however and, together with James Weighell, they took nine off the remainder of Phillips over and seven from the first four balls of the 19th, again bowled by Payne, before he cleaned up Weighell. Byrom would then drag a delivery from Ryan Higgins out in the direction of Howell, who took a spectacular diving catch to add to his earlier wickets before Prem Sisodiya and James Harris scrambled Glamorgan to a respectable 158-8 which was probably about 20 runs short of where they hoped to be after their flying start.
The visitors reply started strongly, with Hammond thumping Michael Hogan for six in the opening over of the chase before firing another two through midwicket as they took 10 from the first. Harris would limit them to only two runs from the second however with some fantastic fielding from both Carlson and Lloyd cutting off scoring opportunities effectively before James Bracey got away to a fortuitous start, miscuing Hogan away over Northeast at extra cover for another boundary, the first of the Gloucestershire response. Hammond would pick up another four in near-identical fashion a few balls later.
Weighell would fare little better when he was introduced to the attack, Bracey thrashing his first delivery away for another boundary as the English side looked to be positive from the outset. Harris would then change ends for the fifth over and meet a similar fate, disappearing for back-to-back boundaries courtesy of Bracey before Hammond skied one out towards Weighell on the square leg boundary and the Glamorgan man could only look on helplessly as the greasy ball shot through his grasp and down to the turf as a key chance went begging.
A second six of the innings would come in Weighell’s next over as Hammond dispatched the bowler’s half-tracker away over midwicket for a monstrous six as the powerplay ended with the score on 54-0. Douthwaite was the next bowler to face the fireworks as Hammond refused to let any of the bowlers settle before one big shot too many would prove his undoing, a thick outside edge flying out to Byrom at point who hung on to break the opening partnership with the score on 58. Cockbain would ensure the over was still a successful one for the visitors as he survived a vociferous lbw shout first ball before clipping the bowler away for another boundary to end the over.
Spin would be introduced for the first time in the eighth over, and the decision would reap immediate rewards as Sisodiya conceded only seven and drew a leading edge from Cockbain which he held onto calmly as the ball came back to him and leave Gloucestershire two down. Further quiet overs from Douthwaite and Sisodiya would see the visitors reach the halfway point 12 runs and 2 wickets worse over than the hosts had been at the same stage.
In Bracey and Phillips, Gloucestershire still had a highly dangerous pair at the crease and Douthwaite’s opening delivery of the 11th over was once again crashed through the covers before Bracey then smacked him back over his head for a second boundary in the over.
Phillips would require little invitation to join in the fun, crashing a returning Hogan for another boundary down the ground to take Gloucestershire beyond 100. Captain Lloyd would bring himself on for the 14th over and Bracey would bring up his half-century midway through the over, calmly nudging the ball to midwicket for a single before Phillips dragged one away behind square and then bludgeoned one down the ground for consecutive boundaries as Gloucestershire crept closer to their target.
More runs would be leaked from the next over as Harris conceded a boundary to each of Bracey and Phillips respectively before Sisodiya would be dragged back into the firing line as Phillips launched another boundary down the ground. With four overs left, Gloucestershire were well in sight of their target, with only a further 20 runs required as Bracey marshalled the chase superbly while Phillips provided some crowd entertainment on a ground which he previously lit up in the Hundred last summer.
Douthwaite would give the Cardiff crowd a fleeting glimmer of hope as Hogan pulled off a fantastic one-handed catch at long-on to dismiss the big-hitting Kiwi before having Higgins caught behind by Cooke first ball, but by that stage the damage was done as Bracey would carry Gloucestershire to the verge of victory before holing out to Carlson for a fantastic 63 with 8 runs required for victory.
Captain Taylor struck the winning runs to take Gloucestershire to victory while Glamorgan will be rueing a collapse of 8-64 with the bat. Up next for the Welsh side is a clash with fellow strugglers Hampshire while Gloucestershire face another South-West derby against Somerset on Thursday evening.
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