Vitality Blast 2023: June 30th All Matches - Scorecards, Match Reports and Reactions

Here are the Vitality Blast June 30th 2023 Match Reports, Results, Scorecards and Reactions for all the matches being played today.

 

Top Tournament Stats - Vitality Blast 2023

Most Runs - Top Batter 

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Points Table

Fixtures

North Group

Worcestershire vs Durham, North Group, Vitality Blast

Worcestershire Rapids face a last-game decider at Derby on Sunday after their Vitality Blast qualification bid was held up by a tied game with Durham at New Road.

Chasing 216 for four, Durham’s fifth-highest Blast total, the Rapids were 112 for three from 11 overs when the umpires took the players off for bad light. As the sky remained slate grey, that was it for the night, so the teams took a point apiece.  

Despite their tall total, Durham were denied their first T20 win in eight attempts at New Road while the Rapids now face a winner-takes-all visit to Derbyshire Falcons.  

The visitors piled up 216 for four thanks to Graham Clark, who smashed 78 from 47 balls, supported by Michael Jones, Brydon Carse and Ashton Turner whose violent cameos combined came to 111 from 62. 

Mitchell Santner’s cleanly-hit 20-ball 42 then ensured that the Rapids stayed in the game and, crucially, up with the D/L rate, on an evening when the weather always threatened to close in.

Put in, Durham soon lost skipper Alex Lees, who lifted the fourth ball of the innings to mid on, but recovered to post a solid powerplay (45 for one) and then accelerate spectacularly.

Clark added 83 in 51 balls with Jones (39, 28) and 71 in 35 with Carse whose 19-ball 39 included four sixes before he missed a pull at Usama Mir and was bowled.

That was a rare moment of joy in an unforgiving night for the Pakistan spinner as Durham charged along, only Santner (4-0-25-1) applying any sort of brake. Clark was superbly caught by Adam Hose, racing in and diving forward at long on, but Turner’s brilliant improvisation (33 not out, 15 balls) brought 28 from the last over and left the Rapids a daunting target.

Their chase started badly when Brett D’Oliviera’s leg stump was sent flying by Ben Raine. Jack Haynes smashed 24 from ten balls but was bowled, sweeping, by George Drissell. Santner landed some long blows to raise hopes among the home crowd but miscued an attempt to lift Nathan Sowter into New Road and was well taken by Turner at long on.

The chase, already damaged by Raine and Drissell, was further inconvenienced by rain and drizzle, before the light closed in. After the players left the field, only the most optimistic spectators remained in the ground as the unbroken canopy of grey overhead offered not the slightest hope of brightening. The Rapids’ fluctuating Blast campaign will go right to the wire.

Nottinghamshire vs Warwickshire, North Group, Vitality Blast

Birmingham Bears booked themselves a home quarter-final in the Vitality Blast with a two-wicket victory over North Group rivals Notts Outlaws at a damp Trent Bridge despite losing four wickets to Pakistan ace Shaheen Shah Afridi in the first over of their innings as they chased 169 to win.

The Bears, already sure of a place in the knock-out stages after five straight wins before this, found themselves reeling at seven for four as the left-armer, at 23 already regarded as among the best bowlers in the world in this format, gave away five wides with his first ball but then took wickets with his first, second, fifth and sixth legal deliveries.

But, after the Outlaws lost their England quick Olly Stone after bowling just three balls on his comeback from injury, opener Rob Yates put together a calm 65 from 46 balls with five sixes that ultimately proved to be the foundation for a victory completed with five balls to spare with vital runs from Jacob Bethell (27) and Jake Lintoff (27 not out) in the middle and later stages of the innings.

Despite Tom Moores hitting 73 from 42 balls, the Outlaws always looked to be under par with 168 from their 20 overs, Hasan Ali taking three for 25 and Lintott three for 27. Afridi’s four for 29 and Jake Ball’s three for 33 proved in vain and Outlaws need to beat Leicestershire Foxes at Trent Bridge in their final game to join the Bears in the knock-out stages.

Asked to bat first after struggling for runs in their last three matches, the Outlaws suffered an early blow as Alex Hales continued his own poor run by chopping on to Henry Brookes for four but Joe Clarke and Lyndon James found some late momentum in the powerplay, James clearing the Larwood and Voce Stand with an enormous six over midwicket off Brookes.

Yet from 61 for one after six overs they were checked again by the Bears spinners, with both Clarke (26) and Matt Montgomery bowled by Lintott in consecutive overs as the Outlaws reached halfway at 86 for three.

Lintott, the left-arm wrist spinner, picked up his third wicket when James, in his most productive Blast innings to date, cut straight to backward point for 37, but gave Moores a life on 21 when he spilled what should have been an easy boundary catch off Olly Hannon-Dalby.

It turned out to be an expensive miss in the context of the innings as the wicket-keeper made the most of that and another slice of luck on 28 when a steepler off Glenn Maxwell dropped safe by hammering sixes off Maxwell, Lintoff and Hannon-Dalby twice as 45 were added in the last six overs.

But that was against the loss of six wickets as Pakistan international Ali signed off his Bears stint by having Steven Mullaney caught on the fence, trapping Matt Carter leg before and bowling Moores with the last ball of the innings after Maxwell had removed Imad Wasim, leg before, and Shaheen Shah Afridi via a catch at long-on before Olly Stone was run out as the last three balls of the innings all brought wickets.

Any hopes of straightforward night for the Bears seemed to be obliterated in Afridi’s extraordinary first over, which began with five wides but then saw Alex Davies yorked and Chris Benjamin bowled attempting a scoop off the first two legal deliveries, followed by two singles and another two wickets off the final two balls, Dan Mousley falling victim to a stunning one-handed catch by Stone at short cover and Ed Barnard castled first ball by another stunning yorker.

More drama followed as Stone, playing in his first Blast match of the season after a long absence with a hamstring injury, had to leave the field after bowling just three balls. Yates began to assert himself with sixes off Carter and Ball but Maxwell bottom-edged into his stumps off Ball and the Bears were 60 for five.

Thanks to Afridi’s heroics, the Bears were three runs behind where they needed to be on the Duckworth Lewis Stone chart when rain brought an interruption with the visitors 76 for five after seven, but the break, which in the end cost no overs, game the Bears time to gather their senses and at 101 for five after 10, with Yates having completed a 27-ball fifty that included four sixes, they were beginning to look favourites.

James Bethell was needlessly run out in the 12th over, putting the outcome in the balance again with 51 needed from 50 balls, but as the requirement came down to 34 from the last five overs it was clear that the Outlaws needed to be rid of Yates if they were not to slip to defeat.

In the event, they claimed his wicket with the next ball as the left-hander sent a delivery from  Ball skywards and Clarke took a fine diving catch at cover as Yates departed for 65.  Ball raised home hopes again when he dismissed Hasan Ali with two overs left but Henry Brookes hit the winning boundary off Imad Wasim in the final over.

Lancashire vs Yorkshire, North Group, Vitality Blast

Lancashire and Yorkshire suffered weather frustration as their Roses Vitality Blast clash at Emirates Old Trafford was abandoned without a ball bowled - an outcome which knocked the latter out of this season’s competition.

Rain throughout the day in Manchester got lighter as the 7pm start time approached, but it didn’t abate, leaving Lancashire waiting on the result of the Derbyshire v Leicestershire match to see whether the qualification for the quarter-finals would be confirmed before Sunday’s final round of North Group matches. 

If Derby fail to beat Leicester, Lancashire are through. 

Umpires Michael Gough and Graham Lloyd called the match off just after 8.40pm.

Lancashire came into this fixture second in the group needing two points to be sure of progression. But the capture of only one point was a setback in their pursuit of a top-two finish and a home tie in the last eight next Thursday or Friday.

The Lightning, who have won seven of their 12 matches so far, face Northamptonshire Steelbacks here at Old Trafford on Sunday afternoon.

Yorkshire, meanwhile, needed a victory to keep their hopes of qualification alive.

They finish with 14 points from 14 games, six wins and six defeats and two No Results. Their other No Result was against Durham at the Riverside last Friday.

They do at least leave this competition knowing they are unbeaten against their arch-rivals this season having won the Headingley meeting at the start of June.

This was the third Roses match at Emirates Old Trafford abandoned without a ball bowled following 2012 and 2019.

 

Derbyshire vs Leicestershire, North Group, Vitality Blast

An explosive maiden T20 century by Tom Wood fired Derbyshire Falcons to a 71 run win over Leicestershire Foxes at Derby and kept alive their Vitality Blast hopes.

Wood smashed an unbeaten 110 which included 12 fours and four sixes off 57 balls as the Falcons posted 231 for 4, their highest total in T20 cricket.

Harry Came with 56 off 36 balls shared an opening stand with Wood of 148 from 81 balls, another Derbyshire record in the competition, before late cameos from Leus du Plooy and Haider Ali piled on the misery for the Foxes.

Peter Handscomb replied with 61 from 43 balls but the Foxes came up well short on 160 for 9 with Zaman Khan taking 3 for 27 to leave the Falcons needing to beat Worcestershire in the last game on Sunday to have a chance of making the quarter-finals.

The Falcons began sedately,failing to find the ropes in the first three overs, but Woods served up a taste of what was to come by hitting Ed Barnes for two boundaries in the fourth before launching into Michael Finan.

He pulled the pace bowler for the first six of the innings and swatted three more fours to take 19 from the over and lift the Falcons to 55 at the end of the powerplay.

When Barnes, who injured his right hand stopping a drive from Wood, returned at the Racecourse end, Came ramped him over third man for six before a misfield gave Woods his seventh four and his 50 which came off 28 balls.

The Foxes were struggling to stem the run flow and Woods hoisted Colin Ackermann high over long off for his second six to take the Falcons to 100 without loss at the halfway stage.

Louis Kimber’s first ball in T20 cricket was dispatched over long off for six by Wood who pulled the last ball of the over for another maximum.

Came pulled Tom Scriven for six on his way to 50 from 34 balls and drove the seamer over the ropes as 20 came from the over.

Wood was given a life on 86 when Kimber dropped him at long on but the stand ended in the 14th over when Came drilled Ackermann to long off.

But there was no respite for the Foxes as Wood smashed Barnes over mid off for his 11th four to reach his century off only 51 balls.

Callum Parkinson had Wayne Madsen caught behind off a top edge but that only brought in du Plooy who smashed Finan for consecutive sixes as the Falcons sailed past 200.

After du Plooy was caught behind off Tom Scriven, Ali hammered two sixes to take the Falcons past their previous highest T20 score of 222 and leave the Foxes facing a daunting chase.

They set off well with 61 coming from the powerplay before Wiaan Mulder was bowled for 35 aiming a big drive at Mattie McKiernan.

Rishi Patel pulled Wood over long on for six and dispatched McKiernan onto the top tier of the media centre to keep the Foxes in the hunt but they still needed 131 from the last 10 overs.

Patel went in the 11th when he skied a big drive at George Scrimshaw and the soaring asking rate claimed Ackermann when he swept Alex Thomson to deep square in the next over.

Nick Welch hoisted McKiernan over long off for six before he was cleaned up by Khan and Kimber’s attempt to hit Scrimshaw out of the ground only ended in the hands of Ali running back from mid on.

Khan claimed the big wicket of Handscomb and yorked Scriven before Zak Chappell removed Finan to seal victory with Barnes unable to bat.

South Group

Kent vs Sussex, South Group, Vitality Blast

A superb century from Ravi Bopara helped the Sussex Sharks beat the Kent Spitfires by 11 runs in a rain-affected Vitality Blast match at Canterbury on Friday night.

Bopara played a magnificent, almost chanceless, innings to record his highest ever T20 score of 108 from 53 balls, with 18 fours and just one six, as Sussex posted a massive 228 for seven, Tom Clark getting their next highest score with 47.

Kent were 31 for one in reply after 3.2 overs when heavy rain began to fall and they were set a revised target of 129 from 10 overs via the Duckworth-Lewis Method. Needing to hit out as soon as play resumed, they lost wickets too regularly to seriously threaten Sussex and finished on 117 for four, although they remain in the top four.

There was another Friday night sell-out at the Spitfire Ground, but Kent’s decision to bowl first soon backfired as they struggled to cope with damp and blustery conditions.

Jack Leaning bowled Harrison Ward for five with the fifth ball of the night and Oli Carter also went early, chipping Matt Quinn to Michael Hogan at mid on for three but from 14 for two the Sharks launched a blistering counter-attack. Bopara cover drove his first ball for four and took 14 from the over. Clark then took 18 from Leaning’s next over and it was 73 for two by the end of the powerplay, by which time persistent drizzle was falling.

Clark looked in incendiary form, but when he tried to take a single off Joey Evison he was sent back by Bopara and run out by George Linde.

Shadab Khan came in and hit Linde for successive sixes, but when he tried to repeat the feat he was caught by Jordan Cox on the boundary for 15.

Michael Burgess hit 21 from 14, but after switch-hitting Linde for six he was caught behind off the next ball.

Bopara responded by taking 19 from Grant Stewart’s 15^th over and he reached three figures with an elegant cover drive off Hogan for two in the 19th. Hogan had Fynn Hudson-Prentice lbw for 16 and Bopara finally went for 108, perhaps unluckily, when he hit a waist-high full toss from Matt Quinn to Alex Blake.

Kent knew they’d have to eclipse their previous highest run chase of 207 to win a T20 match but just three came from the first over and Tawanda Muyeye then played on to Ari Karvelas and was bowled for one.

Blake went in at three for his first appearance of the season and immediately went on the charge. He hit the first ball of Tymal Mills’ fourth over for four and dumped the next into the Sainsbury’s next to the ground for six, but at this point the umpires decided the rain had become too heavy and when they returned Kent needed 98 from 40 balls.

Daniel Bell-Drummond, having scored 480 in the previous week, had to retire hurt on seven and although Sam Billings was dropped by Clark off his first ball, before the over was out Blake holed out to Shadab for a 12-ball 30 and he was caught by Burgess.

Linde hit 12 from three before he was run out chasing a second but Billings and Cox just about kept Kent in it. The former was run out chasing a non-existent single and after Mills went for just six in the 19^th, Kent needed 26 from NathanMcAndrew’s final over. They could only manage 14 but results elsewhere mean they can still qualify if they win at Taunton on Sunday.

Surrey vs Somerset, South Group, Vitality Blast

Tom Banton lit up a gloomy night at a sold-out Kia Oval with a brilliant 84 as South Group leaders Somerset beat Surrey by 18 runs to leave their hosts needing to win their final game to join them in the quarter finals.

Banton’s brilliance underpinned Somerset’s 208 for five after they had been put in and they then bowled and fielded impressively to defend that total and chalk up their 11th win out of 13.

Matt Henry picked up two wickets with the new ball and two more at the end to finish with an excellent four for 30 while Indian leg-spinner Ish Sodhi had three for 33 on an impressive debut including the key wickets of Will Jacks, who top scored with 50, and Jamie Smith off successive balls in the ninth over.

That left Surrey 85 for five and although Sam Curran kept swinging with 47, Surrey finished on 190 for nine. Somerset had already secured a home tie in the last eight but Surrey will need to beat Essex at the Kia Oval on Sunday to give themselves the chance of finishing runners-up.

Surrey paid heavily for an unusually sloppy performance in the field. Banton was badly dropped by Jacks at backward point on 39, Jacks having earlier put down a tougher chance when Tom Kohler-Cadmore had made 14. Those drops were to cost Surrey 70 runs.

Somerset lost Will Smeed in the fourth over when he failed to clear mid-on off Sean Abbott, but Banton and Kohler-Cadmore ticked along at nearly 12 an over for the next five overs, Kohler-Cadmore producing the shot of the innings when he reverse-swept Sunil Narine over the short boundary on the gasholder side which bounced back off the scoreboard.

Jacks held on to a catch to remove Kohler-Cadmore for 39 and Narine picked up Tom Abell and Tom Lammonby in successive overs to give Surrey some control.

But when Ben Green, twice, and Banton lofted Tom Lawes over the leg-side boundary in the 15th over Somerset found momentum again. Banton looked to be on course for a hundred but aiming to clear the leg side again he got a leading edge and Sam Curran took a simple catch off his own bowling.

Green struck the ball impressively in his 40 from 24 balls although Curran and skipper Chris Jordan did well to only concede 12 runs in the last two overs.

Somerset’s most experienced seamers, Craig Overton and Henry, shared the first six overs and Henry removed Laurie Evans, who drove to mid-on, and Narine, caught at mid-off, to give them early control. Jacks and Sam Curran counter-attacked, adding 58 in 29 balls before Sodhi made a decisive breakthrough in his first over for the county.

Jacks had just reached a 26-ball fifty – his fifth in this season’s Blast – when Kohler-Cadmore plucked a brilliant catch out of the air at long on and Sodhi pinned Smith lbw with his next ball. If that wasn’t bad enough, Craig Overton returned to the attack in the next over and had the dangerous Abbott caught behind. Surrey had lost three wickets in six balls for the addition of one run and their race looked run.

Sam Curran and Jamie Overton took the fight back to Somerset, sharing 51 off 28 balls before Green, the competition’s leading wicket-taker, snared his 27^th victim when he bowled Overton at the start of the 15^th over. A target of 67 off the last five overs was beyond Surrey but at least a crowd of 25,000 had 19 sixes and nearly 400 runs to enjoy.

Hampshire vs Glamorgan, South Group, Vitality Blast

Ben McDermott smashed his fourth fifty of his Vitality Blast season against Glamorgan to put defending champions Hampshire Hawks in prime position for a quarter-final spot.

Australian McDermott pinged 54 off 27 as Hampshire scored 97 for two in 9.2 overs before rain descended on the Ageas Bowl and Glamorgan were set 83 in six overs.

Colin Ingram splattered a quick-fire 34 to give the Welsh side hope but John Turner’s two-run over and good defensive bowling from Nathan Ellis and James Fuller meant the Hawks restricted them to 54 for one and won by 21 runs.

Hampshire move level with Surrey in second on 16 points to open up the possibility of a home knockout tie, with victory against Gloucestershire on Sunday confirming their progression. Glamorgan’s unlikely route to the quarter-finals, which would have need two wins and a big net run rate swing, is now ended.

James Vince had initially been the aggressor, having been asked to bat by Glamorgan, with the first legal delivery of the match carted to the straight boundary.

But he fell to a steepling catch at fine leg by Prem Sisodiya in the fourth over to give Jamie McIlroy his 19th wicket of a successful campaign.

On his return from a broken foot, Tom Prest leaned back and pummelled his third delivery for six but was leg before to Peter Hatzoglou soon after.

McDermott had taken control of that 48-run stand with a pair of maximums to the longest boundary at midwicket and another over square leg.

The Hobart Hurricanes star has been overshadowed by Vince’s scoring exploits but has now pilfered 371 runs at a strike-rate of 144.

He reached his half-century in 23 balls as the Hawks intelligently raced to 97 for two in 9.2 overs before the persistent drizzle kept the players off for just over two hours.

Glamorgan were given six overs, with an eight-ball powerplay, to find their way to their new target and sent overseas Ingram up to open with Kiran Carlson.

Ingram did what he was asked to do in the first over by hitting a six over long off before a pair of boundaries in a 19-over opening.

But John Turner bounced back with a superb second over which only went for two and included five dot balls.

Nathan Ellis and Benny Howell kept the visitors under the rate before the former had the dangerous Ingram caught for a 13-ball 34 with 40 needed off 10 balls.

Ellis only went for 17 in his two overs before Fuller's finale was cut three balls short as rain returned with an impossible 29 still needed. 

Essex vs Middlesex, South Group, Vitality Blast

Ryan Higgins led Middlesex to a second unlikely victory in the three Vitality Blast matches to leave Essex’s hopes of qualifying for the knockout stage hanging by a thread.

  The Middlesex all-rounder’s 61 was plundered off just 24 balls and included three sixes and eight fours. It laid the foundations for a chase after 226 runs only surpassed by their record 253 to beat Surrey last week.

  Even Matt Critchley’s career-best 5-28 could not prevent Middlesex reaching their target with two balls to spare for only their second win of the season.

  Essex now head to the Oval on Sunday where they must beat Surrey to stand any chance of a place in next week’s quarter-finals.

  Essex owed their 225-6 to a splendid 69 off 34 balls from all-rounder Daniel Sams that included six sixes. Essex’s innings yielded 16 sixes, during which Sams, Michael Pepper (32) and Paul Walter (45) all passed 300 runs in this year’s competition.

  Essex, put in, typically lost three wickets in the powerplay while creeping along to 52 runs. It was the calm before the storm. Feroze Khushi was first to go taking a swing at Ethan Bamber and picking out deep mid-off.

  Adam Rossington, returning after a finger injury, hit two sixes, one ramped off Tom Helm, before edging behind for 19 off 13 balls.

  Dan Lawrence completed the trio of early wickets when he retreated towards square leg against Josh De Caires and found himself stretching in vain as the ball thudded into his stumps. Lawrence showed his anger with himself by kicking furiously at the blameless crease.

  However, the run-rate accelerated once Walter joined Pepper and the pair put on 36 inside four overs. Pepper hammered six fours and a six into the pavilion in a 20-ball knock before he leant back and slashed Martin Andersson to backward point.

  Walter, who had recorded single-figure scores in his previous two innings, was back to big-hitting form. The second of the quartet of sixes was the longest, clearing the scorers’ box over de Caires’s head. He perished when slicing Luke Hollman to cover point.

  Sams slipped almost seamlessly into Walter’s boots and battered 43 of the runs in a fifty partnership for the sixth wicket, in which Matt Critchley contributed three. However, Critchley still hit three sixes in an 18-ball 36 before he was caught by Joe Cracknell sliding in from the midwicket boundary. The pair had shared a stand of 79 in six overs.

  Sams’s eyes lit up in the final over in which Andersson conceded 26 runs, including three sixes, two off the last two balls, the first over fine leg, the second over third man.

  The ubiquitous Sams was back on the scorecard when he held a pull from Stevie Eskinazi on the boundary to give Aaron Beard a wicket as Middlesex got off to a steady start in reply. He was in the same position to take the catch that ended Max Holden’s whirlwind 15 off five balls during which 32 runs were compiled from just nine balls in partnership with Higgins.

  Before that, Cracknell was dropped by Rossington on four and added six four and a six in his 36 before misreading Critchley and seeing his bails dislodged.

  Higgins reached his fifty from 20 balls with his third six, swept off Walter, but eventually fell when he pulled Critchley straight into Beard’s hands on the midwicket fence.

  The third and fourth wickets, with Higgins at the helm, accumulated 78 runs off 24 balls.

  But three wickets in seven balls turned the tide back in Essex’s favour as Middlesex slide from 173-4 to 175-7. Sams tempted John Simpson in pick out short midwicket and Critchley had Hollman caught by Beard at mid-on and Alex Davies leg before.

  Middlesex needed nine off the last over with two wickets standing but a six by Andersson off Walter’s third ball all but wrap

 

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