Vitality Blast T20- Surrey suffers first defeat of the season & Hampshire climbs to Top 4

Middlesex vs Essex Eagles

Essex Eagles climbed to the third spot after defeating Middlesex by 21 runs as they were too strong for Middlesex at Lords. 

Bowling first, Middlesex got their first breakthrough early in the form of Feroze Khushi (1). Adam Rossington (19) and Michael Paper (26) gave an anchoring start for the innings, followed by Dan Lawrence and Tom Westley’s fifties. The duo took the team to 161/6 despite Chris Green’s brilliant spell of 3-16 in 3 overs.

In reply, skipper Stephen Eskinazi and Jack Davies led Middlesex’s chase game, as they scored 43 and 41. Samuel Cook’s three-wicket haul to dismiss Max Holden (3), Joe Cracknell (0), and John Simpson (0) left Middlesex hopeless. Their lower order also failed to contribute except for unbeaten 11 and 22 from Martin Andersson and Jason Behrendorff. Thus, the team got restricted to 140/8 in 20 overs. 

Somerset vs Hampshire Hawks

Hampshire’s skipper James Vince starred as the opener smashed an unbeaten 129 off 62, adding another century in this season to his bag. It was the highest individual score by a Hampshire player in T20 cricket. While Ben McDermott got dismissed at a duck, James Vince and Tom Prest built a mammoth 144-run stand in just 87 balls. Tom Prest scored 62 in addition to 129 from James Vince to lead Hampshire to 208/5. No other batter contributed, as all others returned with a duck or single-digit score.

However, this high total was not enough to challenge Somerset, who fell short by just 14 runs in this chase. Somerset’s top three batters were clinical with getting runs. Tom Banton (54) and Rilee Rossouw (55) got their half-centuries, whereas Will Smeed added 43 off 27. The rest of the team made insignificant contributions, getting dismissed for a single-digit score. Hampshire climbed to the fourth spot, whereas Somerset still sits comfortably at the second spot at the table.

Sussex Sharks vs Surrey

Sussex pulled off one of the surprises of the 20th edition of Vitality Blasts as they beat Surrey at Hove to give them their first defeat of the campaign. Surrey looked on course for another victory at 111-2 in the 11th over while chasing 173. However, they got defeated following a dramatic collapse in the late innings. 

Sussex Sharks put up a grand total of 172/5 owing to their innings' good start and terrific end. Mohammad Rizwan put up a 44-run stand first with Harrison Ward, followed by a 48-run partnership with Ali Orr. Tom Alsop (11) and Ravi Bopara (7) failed to add in the middle; however, Delray Rawlins and George Garton smashed an unbeaten stand of 60 runs off the last 27 balls, rocketing their total to 172.

Surrey started the inning with a 53-run opening partnership between Will Jacks and Jamie Smith. Jamie Smith scored just 14 runs, whereas Will Jacks fetched 48-ball 76 while continuing his run game with Laurie Evans (26). But apart from these three, the complete batting line-up stumbled despite inching so close to the total. Tymal Mills and Delray Rawlins took two wickets each. In contrast, Steven Finn, Rashid Khan, Henry Crocombe and Ravi Bopara too returned with a wicket each as they picked a 17-run win over table toppers by bundling them at 155 in 18.2 overs.