County cricket: Northants and Somerset sitting pretty in T20 Blast

1. It ain’t over ’til it’s over

After six consecutive wins, Northamptonshire must have been confident of a lucky seventh at Wantage Road when reducing Durham to 77 for five, Ben Raine gone for an eight-ball 17, the fightback stalled almost before it started. But Will Rhodes and Jimmy Neesham have played plenty of T20 cricket (in Neesham’s case plenty for Northants) and they set their sights on building a competitive target and, in posting 157 for eight, the visitors were in the game.

By the end of the powerplay, with the leaders needing only 102 off 14 overs with nine wickets in hand, it looked like Northants could chalk up another victory. Cue the canny spin of Nathan Sowter and Callum Parkinson, who conceded just one boundary each as their six overs yielded three wickets for just 28 runs, as Durham celebrated a win by 15 runs.

It was another example of two truisms of cricket in any format. Firstly, the match is always longer than you might think, and that time gives opportunities for the pendulum to swing, but you have to be in the game to make the game. Secondly, and the transfixing Test match at Lord’s bore out this point, boundaries and dizzying run rates can bring the spectacle, but a tight, low-scoring thriller, where every decision is a chance to wrest back the advantage, provides richer fare.

Northamptonshire are still sitting pretty at the top of the North Group in the T20 Blast with 24 points, with Durham in a clutch of three teams immediately behind them with 16.

2. Power mainly outside the powerplays

That said, high-scoring games can be fun too, with the Birmingham Bears and Nottinghamshire producing a rare close finish – there really should be more of them – at Edgbaston.

After a somewhat pedestrian powerplay that yielded just 37 runs and one wicket, teenage spinner Farhan Ahmed the successful bowler having been trusted with bowling two of the six, a pair of international bears, Tom Latham and Dan Mousley got going. Their 116 in 11.3 overs for the second wicket set a platform for Ed Barnard and Moeen Ali to blaze 57 off 20 balls at the death to get Birmingham over 200.

Danny Briggs, another slow bowler with a job to do in the powerplay, kept a lid on things, but, in another echo of old-school limited-overs cricket, Nottinghamshire had kept wickets in hand. Opener Lyndon James found a partner in wicketkeeper Tom Moores, and the pair put on 107 in 9.2 overs. There were still runs to get after James was out for 50, but Daniel Sams is as good as they come at six-hitting at the death, though it was Moores who delivered the walk-off home run off the last ball to seal the victory.

There’s not much to separate them on the field or table, the Outlaws and Bears fifth and sixth on 12 points.

3. Sussex bloom at Sophia Gardens

Sussex, one of the teams of the season so far, are just two points off first place in the South Group.

Their victory in Cardiff was a textbook example of constructing a winning position and then driving it home. Harrison Ward blitzed the powerplay making 55 off 24 balls before handing over to the rest of the top six, who all made scores. Glamorgan then lost wickets at bad times, never landing a punch to be all out in the 19th over, 28 runs short.

Australian seamer Nathan McAndrew was the chief destroyer with six for 21; he must enjoy these batters, having taken five for 19 against them last week at Hove. He’s never played international cricket, but McAndrew has almost 100 Big Bash and Blast matches under his belt. He knows what he’s doing.

4. Knotty calculation delivers a tie

In a good week for South African cricketers, teenager Lhuan-dre Pretorius announced his arrival in England with a scorching 44 off 22 balls as Hampshire posted 63 for one off a rain-interrupted six overs. After Messrs Duckworth, Lewis and Stern had been consulted, Middlesex were obliged to chase 76 for the win.

Chris Wood started with a maiden, but Max Holden was only getting his eye in as he went four, four, six, four, four, two, six off the next seven balls he faced. Needing 13 off the sixth over for the win, Kane Williamson and Ben Geddes got 12, Scott Currie limiting them to just the one boundary.

So 12 more runs scored by Middlesex, but the points shared – it makes sense in the head if not in the heart. Young Pretorius might not know about his country’s exit from the 1992 World Cup. And it’s probably best not to tell him.

5. Batter of the week: Daniel Bell-Drummond

Somerset did a Northants in the South Group, giving up a 100% record with a defeat to Kent but retaining first place in the table.

The match was won (but only just, Somerset fell only five runs short) in an opening stand of 158 in 13.2 overs between Tawanda Muyeye (70) and Daniel Bell-Drummond (100). Bell-Drummond’s effort was the first ton in the Blast this season, coming as most teams get close to the halfway mark in the 14-game schedule, which goes to show that such landmarks are rare.

The Kent veteran, who is somehow still only 31, has not enjoyed a season marked by his usual consistency, his only score of note 223 at Lord’s but even that was in a losing cause. The opener was one of this column’s five county cricketers of the year in 2023 and one can only hope that his high summer and autumn can help rescue a poor April and May for his team. County cricket needs a strong Kent; those of us who recall those great sides of the 1970s do for sure.

Daniel Bell-Drummond celebrates after hitting a century for Kent against Somerset at Taunton.

6. Bowler of the week: Matthew Potts

In an age when the orthodoxy suggests it’s demanding to expect players to switch formats, Matthew Potts keeps running in. This season, he’s played four Championship matches, two ODIs, one T20I and two Blast T20s. And he never gives less than his all.

As he proved in his latest outing, snaring five for 17 against Yorkshire, ripping the heart out of the White Rose batting as the home side collapsed from 55 for three to 100 for nine. That the runs were largely knocked off by ex-Tykes, Alex Lees and Will Rhodes, will not have pleased the locals.

Potts, his very name suggesting solid reliability, will continue to do a job for Durham and England as required. He’s not the most glamorous of players, but fans love a lad whose head never drops, who never sulks when left out and who treats every match like we would had we the talent to play the game at that level.