Vitality Blast 2023 June 3rd - Match Reports, Results, Scorecards and Reactions: All Matches
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Vitality Blast 2023 June 3rd - Match Reports, Results, Scorecards and Reactions: All Matches
Here are the Vitality Blast June 3rd 2023 Match Reports, Results, Scorecards and Reactions for all the matches being played today.
Top Tournament Stats - Vitality Blast 2023
North Group
Scorecard: Birmingham Bears vs Notts Outlaws
Notts Outlaws heaved their staccato Vitality Blast campaign back into forward motion with a spectacular 11-run win over Birmingham Bears at run-soaked Edgbaston.
The Outlaws were put in by the top-of-the-table Bears but piled up an imposing 214 for three. When two batters in the same innings reach half-centuries with their fifth six, things have not gone well for the opposition…so it was with Joe Clarke (89 not out, 53 balls) and Colin Munro (87, 43) as they pummelled the bowlers in a partnership of 122 from 68 balls.
The remarkable Sam Hain then took his Blast run-tally this season to 303 with a superb unbeaten 97 (52) but the Bears fell just short on 203 for nine.
Notts will hope their third win in six games will be the start of a consistent run towards the quarter-finals. The Bears meanwhile, have faltered after a flying start. It has not been the homecoming the Bears had in mind for Moeen Ali. They won four out of four before his return, since when they have lost two out of two – evidence, perhaps, for the case of ‘never change a winning team.’
After choosing to bowl, the Bears soon removed Alex Hales, bowled by Henry Brookes with the ninth ball, but the brisk breakthrough simply opened the door to the onslaught. After a watchful start (Dan Mousley’s first two overs cost just five runs), Munro launched an offensive which silenced the big home crowd.
He bashed Glenn Maxwell straight out of the attack with two sixes and two more sailed into the stands from what proved to be Danny Briggs’ only over. Maxwell, Briggs and Ed Barnard together bowled three overs for 49.
It was thrilling hitting from Munro who was within sight of his sixth T20 century when he lifted Moeen Ali to long off in pursuit of his tenth six. That was the signal for Clarke, hitherto content to be the quiet partner, to attack. The former Rapids batter smote a Brookes full toss into the crowd to raise the Outlaws’ 200 and the innings closed on 214 with 13 fours and 16 sixes.
Under intense scoreboard pressure, the Bears had to go hard from the off and they lost captain and vice-captain in the fourth over. Moeen Ali and Alex Davies flailed off-side catches off Shaheen Afridi and then Maxwell skied a top-edged slog at Jake Ball.
From a parlous 40 for three, Hain and Mousley added 52 in six overs before the latter (28. 18 balls) fell to a brilliant catch by Matt Montgomery, racing in and diving forward from deep point.
That was from Calvin Harrison’s third ball. When the spinner’s 12th delivery bowled Chris Benjamin, the Bears’ hopes lay squarely with Hain. He batted magnificently but that scoreboard pressure (59 needed from the last four overs) was too great.
Bears first team coach Mark Robinson said:
"It was a great wicket and there was some great ball-striking. Munro's innings was pretty special, he just kept clearing the boundaries, and Clarke was a bit scratchy at the beginning but then blossomed. It was a killer partnership.
"Munro's innings was a special one and then Sam Hain's for us was equally as good but he couldn't quite get us over the line. He needed a bit of help. He kept us alive for a long time when we were out of the contest for a while but he kept us in it and it got quite exciting at the end.
"There was one long boundary and one short boundary and they probably defended the short one a bit better than we did, but we have lost to two special innings over the last couple of games. We weren't very good at Derby yesterday but it was still a special knock by Wayne Madsen on a difficult wicket and tonight Munro's ball-striking was exceptional. I kept thinking 'we've done him in the flight' but then the ball was sailing over people's heads.
"There's been a good crowd in tonight and they've been treated to a great innings by Munro and then another one by Hainy so hopefully they'll feel they've had a good night's entertainment..
Outlaws batter Colin Munro said:
"It was a massive win against one of the top teams on their own patch. To come away with a win after a disappointing last night is very pleasing.
"We took a couple of risks early on and when you get a couple away you think maybe it's your night. Myself and Clarkey batted well together in partnership and sometimes that's all it takes. Once I got going, he started moving the ball around really nicely and that's what batting is all about. The way that he ended the innings and really made it a big total was very pleasing for the team.
"I think 185/190 would have been par on that pitch tonight even though they got close. "I was just trying to back myself and play with some freedom. Last night on that good wicket at home I put a bit of pressure on myself to go out there and do something special but that's not always going to be the case."
South Group
Scorecard: Hampshire Hawks vs Sussex Sharks
Sussex Sharks 144 lost to Hampshire Hawks 145/0 by 10 wickets
Ben McDermott proved Hampshire Hawks are more than just James Vince with a dominant 69 as the Hawks drowned Sussex Sharks in El Clasicoast by 10 wickets.
Australian McDermott had started his Vitality Blast campaign with three, 39, 18, and one while opening partner Vince had 280 runs in four innings and had broken the all-time tournament run-scoring record.
But unshackled with six fours and three sixes in a new record first wicket run stand with Vince – with the Hawks skipper collecting his fourth fifty-plus score of this year’s Blast as he smashed 71 off 39 to overtake Wayne Madsen as the highest scorer so far this season.
Vince and McDermott were only chasing 144 after an impeccable bowling display which included two for 18 for Liam Dawson and two for 25 for Scott Currie.
It gave defending champions Hampshire back-to-back thrashings and three wins from five matches, while Sussex have lost three of four outings.
An accident on the nearby M27 left a number of empty seats at the Ageas Bowl, not least Sharks skipper Ravi Bopara’s in the away dressing room. He passed on the captaincy to former Hawk Tom Alsop as he sat in traffic.
His absence left a seniority hole in the Sussex batting which Hampshire ruthlessly exposed as they slumped to 66 for six, and in danger of a mauling.
Tom Clark had stroked the ball around nicely with six boundaries included in his 36 before he was squared up by the impressive Currie – who later bowled Harry Crocombe in his two for 25 – with Tom Haines, Alsop, Dan Ibrahim, Shadab Khan and Michael Burgess all falling in the first half of the innings.
Along with strong Hawks bowling there were a quartet of calamitous dismissals across the innings, three run outs plus a stumping off McDermott’s genitals.
Sussex escaped their collapse thanks firstly to a 27-run stand between James Coles (19) and George Garton (18) and then Fynn Hudson-Prentice’s 31 off 16 balls – which included clearing the ropes off Chris Wood and Currie. But Sussex were eventually bowled out with seven balls unused for an under-par 144.
Vince and McDermott put on a then-club-record 124 for the opening partnership in this fixture last season. That was broken a few days later when they slammed 134 against Middlesex, but was smashed for a third time in barely a year by chalking off the 144.
They only scored one run in the first two overs of their reply, including Garton maiden, before James Vince and Ben McDermott both got lucky with outside edges avoiding hands.
But McDermott opened up with a towering six down the ground off Garton and then ramped the next ball over the ropes. The pair’s first fifty stand of the season came off the last ball of the powerplay.
McDermott continued his assault and reached his half-century in 34 balls, with Vince quickly following him in 24 balls.
In a record-breaking week, Vince now has 20,000 runs for Hampshire across all formats. Samit Patel and Madsen are the only other active players to have as many runs in county cricket.
He now has 351 runs in the Blast as he scored the winning single with 31 balls to spare.
Hampshire batter Ben McDermott:
"It has been a good couple of nights for us. It is always nice to get some away in back-to-backers.
"It has been a bit of a slow start for me in the tournament but Vince has been unbelievable. We got through a scratchy start and saw it through to the back end.
"It is really fun to bat with him. He takes all the pressure off you, is so elegant and doesn't even look like he is taking a risk when he finds the boundary time and time again.
"Dawson has been taking important wickets for us at crucial times. He take the ball in crucial spots and gets it done for us. He has been excellent for us and it sort of goes unnoticed.
"We've been unlucky with a few injuries and Scott Currie has taken his opportunities. He is bowling really nicely. His skills with the ball both bowling slower balls into the wicket and on pace is really good.
"This is a better start that we've had in the past couple of years. Hopefully we can keep going, it is a long tournament and we need to peak at the right time."
Sussex Sharks head coach Paul Farbrace:
“We are very disappointed. We have just had a very good conversation in changing room about the performance today. The one thing I can’t complain about is effort or commitment and we have a lot of people in our team who haven’t played many games.
“There is a lot of inexperience and it is showing. It is showing in our shot selection and reading of the game. We had glimpses of good cricket and then we had some unbelievably dozy cricket.
“I said after our defeat to Essex that if we keep batting the way we bat then we will lose a lot of games. Unfortunately we have taken some of Thursday’s performance into tonight’s performance and that is we have only got 144 on a very good pitch.
“Tonight wasn’t about being angry or upset with the players but it is frustrating and shows we still have a lot of work to do.
“We had an education tonight from the best T20 team in county cricket. They taught us a lesson in so many ways. Their professionalism, the way they set their fields, the way they threw the ball in, ran between the wickets, struck boundaries and attacked out bowlers. For the ones who are sharp enough in our team will learn from what they saw tonight.”
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