Scores, Match Reports, Results, Scorecards - Vitality Blast 2023 May 25th

Here are all the Vitality Blast May 25^th 2023 Scores, Match Reports, Results and Scorecards for matches being played today.

 

North Group

Lancashire Lightning v Leicestershire Foxes (Old Trafford, Manchester)

Match Summary

Lancashire 105/2 (11.3 ov)

Leicestershire 99/10 (18.5 ov)

Result - Lancashire won by 8 wickets

Scorecard

A team with seven internationals blitzed the Foxes early on thanks to Luke Wood’s pace in the powerplay after the visitors had elected to bat, limiting them to a measly 99 all out inside 19 overs. 

Livingstone didn’t bat or bowl in this lunchtime fixture, with his England white ball team-mate Wood setting the tone with two wickets in the third over. He got openers Sol Budinger and Nick Welch caught pulling as the score fell to 17 for two. 

Left-armer Wood finished with three for 11 from four overs, while another  England quick Saqib Mahmood finished with three for 17 from 3.5 before the chase was completed inside 12 overs thanks to Steven Croft’s unbeaten 46 off 34 balls. 

Lancashire have started their bid for what could be a record-breaking 10th Finals Day appearance - Hampshire have also previously qualified for nine - by winning two from two at the start of the North Group.

Wood’s fiery new ball spell seemed to scramble the minds of Leicestershire’s batters, with nine of the 10 wickets to fall all caught in their first game of the competition. Wiaan Mulder’s 25 was the only score above 20. 

When the easier-paced seam of Colin De Grandhomme (two for 28) was introduced in the fourth over, Arron Lilley chipped to midwicket and later Colin Ackermann was bowled aiming a big heave at a slower ball from the former New Zealand all-rounder - 35 for four after seven.

Wickets continued to fall, three in four overs, as Leicestershire slipped deeper into trouble at 74 for seven in the 14th.

Matthew Parkinson struck with his third ball in the 11th when Rishi Patel tried to break the shackles and miscued to Wood at long-on before Mahmood had Mulder caught at deep midwicket pulling in the next.

Wood then returned to get Rehan Ahmed caught behind trying to uppercut a short ball in the 14th over, the England all-rounder falling for six.

That brought about a battle of the Parkinson twins, Matthew and Callum, the latter attempting to retrieve what already looked a lost cause.

Callum survived against his brother, picking up a couple of singles off him on the way to nine. But he then fell caught behind off a top-edge against Lancashire’s other New Zealand all-rounder Daryl Mitchell. 

As the Foxes fell to 94 for eight in the 18th over, Parkinson became the fourth batter out attempting to pull.

Mahmood then wrapped up the innings - Leicestershire’s fifth lowest in Blast history - with two more wickets caught off miscues in the 19th over, Pakistani debutant fast bowler Naseem Shah and Will Davis falling.

South African Mulder took the new ball for the Foxes and struck in the second over when Luke Wells followed a number of visiting batters by falling caught on the pull, leaving Lancashire at eight for one.

Croft and Phil Salt then shared 60 inside six overs for the second wicket, both hitting sixes. 

Salt was then superbly caught at backward point by a diving Patel off Ahmed’s leg-spin for 28, but it was nothing more than a consolatory wicket at 68 for two in the seventh. 

Mitchell later hit a six off Davis over backward square-leg to seal victory and finish 25 not out.

Such is the strength of the Red Rose county’s team, captain Livingstone’s contribution was limited to captaincy alone upon his return from Indian Premier League duty. 

And England limited overs skipper Jos Buttler will be added to the mix in time for next Thursday’s Roses clash at Headingley.

 

Lancashire fast bowler Luke Wood said: “We started off really well and carried it on through the innings. When you look at the batting, we made light work of it. It was pretty convincing.

“It’s not often you bowl three overs in the powerplay, but I feel like I’m bowling well at the moment and so are the other lads. They made it a lot easier for me. We constantly took wickets, and they never got momentum. You could see that with the way they went about their innings. 

“After drawing the first five Championship games, we wanted to get the ball rolling against Derby on Saturday and here. That’s always how you want to win games.”

 

Leicestershire head coach Paul Nixon said:  “It was disappointing. We got away nicely to start with, but we lost three wickets in the space of three overs and then lost Colin Ackermann just after the powerplay. Four down for very little is always going to be very tough against a team with seven internationals in it.

“We’ll dust ourselves down and learn good things from it. We felt the pitch was a bit two-paced - hard to get in and score straightaway. 

“Anything we tried didn’t work. You can have those games in T20 cricket, and we have to reflect well and look forward to tomorrow (Birmingham at home).”

South Group

Scorecard - Middlesex v Surrey (Lord’s, London)

Match Summary

Middlesex 126/10 (14.5 ov)

Surrey 199/6 (20 ov)

Result – Surrey won by 73 runs

 

The Curran brothers Sam and Tom put Middlesex’s bowlers to the sword as Surrey won the T20 Blast London derby at Lord’s by 77 runs.

Sam, who’d hot-footed it back to London from an underwhelming stint at the IPL with Punjab Kings, took out his frustration on the Seaxes with 68 off 47 balls, including two big sixes in Surrey’s total of 199-6.

Brother Tom, playing these days under a white-ball only contract, was if anything even more belligerent with 50 off 33 balls with eight fours as the siblings added 118 in 11 overs. Will Jacks earlier blasted a quick-fire 43.

Three wickets in the final over for Tom Helm gave him 3-38, while left-arm spinner Nathan Fernandez took 1-27 from three overs on debut.

Jacks then starred with ball in hand, returning 3-17, backed up by Gus Atkinson’s 3-20 as the hosts could only muster 126 in reply despite some defiant striking by Max Holden who top scored with 43.

Jacks, who had made two swashbuckling half-centuries in his last three innings against Middlesex at Lord’s in the format, came out swinging from ball one and while he played and missed at a few the England man took heavy toll of a full toss from Helm, belting it back past the bowler for four.

Teenager Fernandez, thrown on in the powerplay struck second ball when pinch-hitter Sunil Narine hit him straight to cover, but Jacks sent two drag downs from leg-spinner Luke Hollman into the stands, before a brilliant catch by Helm on the fence at mid-on ended his revelry at 43

The Currans’ progress was steady initially, but the 12^th over bowled by Ryan Higgins changed the complexion as Tom Curran despatched the all-rounder to all parts, hitting five fours in succession.

Not to be upstaged Sam Curran then cut loose, denting Fernandez’s excellent figures to that point with consecutive sixes.

Blake Cullen, back on Middlesex first-team duty for the first time in more than a year was rusty and his 11-ball over, including a waist-high full toss and four wides only added to Surrey’s momentum.

The 100-stand came in 56 balls, and we were in the penultimate over by the time Tom top-edged a steepling catch back to grateful bowler Higgins. Sam too left before the end as the south Londoners finished one shy of 200.

For Middlesex much depended on skipper Stephen Eskinazi , but he departed for just one, run out following a mix-up from the fourth ball of the innings.

The exciting Joe Cracknell deposited a short one from Sean Abbot into the second tier of the Mound Stand only to perish trying to repeat the feat meaning both openers were gone with 27 on the board.

Pieter Malan back from injury also found the stands before departing to Gus Atkinson for a breezy 30, and Jacks then struck twice in his first over, removing the dangerous Ryan Higgins, caught at mid-off before bowling Hollman round his legs.

Throughout this period Max Holden had hit bravely, smiting two big sixes at a strike rate approaching 200, but when Narine bowled him for 43 the game was up.

 

 

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