T20 Blast: Hawks, Foxes & Rapids boost knockout hopes

Hampshire Hawks thumped Glamorgan by 95 runs to leapfrog the Welsh county into third in the T20 Blast South Group, while there were also wins for Worcestershire and Leicestershire.

Hawks opener Toby Albert was stranded on a career best 98 not out in their 208-4 after adding 114 in 8.1 overs for the fourth wicket with Hilton Cartwright, before the visitors were dismissed for 113 with Sonny Baker taking 4-20.

In the North Group Leicestershire Foxes boosted their quarter-final hopes by inflicting a fifth straight defeat on Northants to go level with the Steelbacks in the top four at Grace Road.

Rehan Ahmed brought up an unbeaten maiden half-century with a boundary to clinch a six-wicket victory with 23 balls to spare as the Foxes chased 172, having reined in the Steelbacks with the ball after they had looked on course for 200, with Ravi Bopara also passing 50.

Worcestershire Rapids remain in the hunt for a knockout place after recovering from a nightmare start where they slumped to 10-4.

After opting to bat first Hampshire made a slow start, losing captain James Vince and Tom Prest to end the six-over powerplay on 42-2.

The hosts were 75-2 at the midway point but then put the pedal down to club 133 from the final 10 overs.

Joe Weatherley cracked 31 while Australian Cartwright smashed four sixes and three fours in a 20-ball 48 – two more than he had scored in his first three Hawks innings combined.

A single moved Albert to 98 from 57 deliveries, with five sixes and seven fours, but he was unable to get back onto strike for the final three deliveries.

Cartwright holed-out off the penultimate ball before James Fuller found the rope from the only ball he faced as the hosts set Glamorgan 209 to win.

Glamorgan’s reply never got going and they slipped to 37-3 in the fifth over of the reply before Liam Dawson had Will Smale and Colin Ingram caught within four deliveries to make it 62-5 in the ninth.

After being put in and losing Tim Robinson without a run on the board, Northants’ David Willey was then dropped on nought with Sam Wood parrying the ball over the rope for six.

He went on to make 27 with Bopara scoring 53 from 40 balls and Saif Zaib smashing 30 from 18 balls as the Steelbacks reached 100-2 in the 11th over.

They collapsed to 129-7 at the start of the 15th before Luke Procter and Ben Sanderson steered them to 171-7.

There were two wickets apiece for England’s Josh Hull, Logan van Beek and spinner Josh Thomas, who is on a short-term loan from Somerset.

Rishi Patel also fell without scoring to start the Foxes reply but Shan Masood and Sol Budinger added 71 inside seven overs before Masood was strangled down the leg side for 25 and Budinger holed out for 40 from 22 balls soon after, both off George Scrimshaw.

Ahmed and Louis Kimber guided the Foxes to 100-3 in 11 overs but Kimber (17) was bowled by Scrimshaw who ended with 3-33, leaving Ben Cox (21* from 10) to join Ahmed to see the hosts to the line.

The England all-rounder hit three sixes in his 30-ball unbeaten 52 not out.

At Derby, Worcestershire made it back-to-back wins to move within four points of the top four.

They might have been regretting choosing to bat first when they fell to 10-4 in the third over, with Zak Chappell (3-26) in fine form, however Roderick made 71 from 59 balls and steadied the ship with Ethan Brookes (43 from 26) before a late flurry from Ben Dwarshuis (33* from 18) and Tom Taylor (14* from five) saw the visitors post 174-6.

Despite two early sixes from Caleb Jewell (16), the Falcons lost wickets at regular intervals and although 41-year-old Madsen hit 10 fours and cleared the ropes twice, his side were unable to keep up with the required rate thanks to some stifling bowling.

South Group

Middlesex v Gloucestershire (17:00 BST)

Kent Spitfires v Somerset (18:30 BST)

Surrey v Glamorgan (18:30 BST)

Essex v Sussex Sharks (19:00 BST)

North Group

Worcestershire Rapids v Bears (17:30 BST)

Northamptonshire Steelbacks v Derbyshire Falcons (18:30 BST)

Nottinghamshire Outlaws v Durham (18:30 BST)