Cricket News T20 Vitality Blast: Review of North Group Bear Foxes and Outlaws

The duo stitched a 114-run partnership to ensure the team moved above Northamptonshire Steelbacks.

Notts Outlaws had a solid start batting first with Alex Hales 12-ball 22 and Ben Duckett’s 29 off 21 after losing Joe Clarke for 6. Samit Patel weighed the inning with his 36-ball 45, followed by Dan Christian’s unbeaten 30 off 14 to take the total to 179 at a loss of 7 wickets.

In response, Lancashires’ Josh Bohannon lost his wicket early for seven runs, whereas Keaton Jennings gave a fiery knock of 24 off 13 balls. What followed this was an excellent unbeaten 61 off 44 from Steven Croft and skipper Dane Vilas’ 55 off 30 to help Lancashire Lighting take a step ahead for the quarterfinals race. The duo smashed 11 boundaries and four sixes to dent Outlaws’ chances for qualification as they are now languishing at the seventh spot with five losses in 9 games.

Durham vs Leicestershire Foxes

Wiaan Mulder and Rehan Ahmed shone for Leicestershire foxes as they defeated Durham by 51 runs.

Leicestershire had a poor start as Harry Swindells got run-out for a duck without playing a ball. Nick Welch got into a 38-run partnership with Rishi Patel before Andrew Tye took his first in the form of Rishi Patel (22). Wickets tumbling at regular intervals, Wiaan Mulder played a crucial knock, smashing 54 runs off 33 balls at a strike rate of 163.63. The middle-order struggled to contribute as Andrew Tye took his five-wicket haul to return with a figure of 5-38, restricting Leicestershire to 157/9 in 20 overs

Though the total looked chase-able and challenging to defend, Durham batters failed to make a mark. Rehan Ahmed ran through the middle order, which they could not recover. The highest individual score came from Paul Coughlin, who scored 22 runs from 17 balls as the team got bowled out for 106 runs in 16.4 overs. Rehan Ahmed notched his career-best figure of 4-22, leaving Andrew Tye’s fifer in vain and keeping hopes of the Leicestershire Blast campaign hopes alive.

Birmingham Bears vs Derbyshire

Derbyshire defeated Birmingham Bears by seven wickets at Edgbaston to register their fourth consecutive win, moving them up to fourth place in the points table.

Batting first, Birmingham Bears got a horrible start as their top three batters, Paul Stirling (2), Rob Yates (4) and Alex Davies (5), lost their wickets very early. Sam Hain coming at number 4, scored an unbeaten 73 off 40 to help the team reach a decent total of 159/7 in 20 overs as Sam Conners took a three-wicket haul. Apart from Sam Hain, Adam Hose and Carlos Brathwaite contributed 20 and 18 runs to add to the total.

Derbyshire paced the chase to perfection. It started with a 55-run stand for the opening pair, as Shan Masood and Luis Reece gave them a solid start. Luis Reece fell for 38, but Shan Masood remained unbeaten at 45, joining hands with Wayne Madsen, number 3, who scored a 34-ball 55, before falling with the finish line. Derbyshire completed the win with 11 balls to spare.