T20 Blast 2019, Day 4: Round-up

The aficionadi got to witness an absolute thriller on the fourth day of T20 Blast 2019. The low-scoring encounter between Hampshire and Kent left everyone on the edge of their seats. Fortunes kept swaying both ways and the winner of the game wasn’t decided until the last over of the match was bowled.

Apart from this, there were two other games that were played on the day. Both these North group matches ended up being one-sided. Australia’s Glenn Maxwell played a wonderful knock for Lancashire while Fidel Edwards picked up a four-wicket haul for his team, Warwickshire. There were many other great performances as well.

Here is how things progressed on the day:

Lancashire vs Durham – North Group

Lancashire played some extremely aggressive cricket after they won the toss and opted to bat first. Even though they lost Alex Davies early for 24 runs, Steven Croft and Glenn Maxwell stitched together a great partnership. While the former remained unbeaten on 65 off 43 balls, the latter took just 33 balls to score 58 runs. Dane Vilas and Josh Bohannon played aggressive knocks towards the end which pushed the score to 189/3.

Durham struggled in the chase and none of their batsmen really stood up to the occasion. Opener Scott Steel alone scored 58 runs out of the team’s total of 117. Only two other batsmen got to double figures and Matthew Parkinson picked up a three-wicket haul. Durham lost the game by 72 runs.

Brief Scores:

LANCS: 189/3 in 20 overs (Steven Croft 65*, Glenn Maxwell 58, Nathan Rimmington 2/30)

DUR: 117/10 in 16.4 overs (Scott Steel 58, A Lees 12, Matthew Parkinson 3/30)

Result: Lancashire won by 72 runs.

Warwickshire vs Leicestershire – North Group

Fidel Edwards was on absolute fire after Leicestershire was put in to bat first. He dismissed both the openers for a first-ball duck and then also got the better of A Lilley who scored 1 run. The team was down to 2/3 after this blow and recovery was always tough. Harry Dearden and Colin Ackermann scored 27 and 26 runs respectively. L Hill and Ben Mike added 19 runs each to the total as the team got to 115/9 in 20 overs.

The chase was a cakewalk for Warwickshire. Ed Pollock gave them a good start scoring 27 off 16 balls while Sam Hain anchored the innings and got 31 runs. Ashton Agar played an aggressive cameo later in the innings scoring 41 off only 28 balls which helped the team reach the target with 31 balls to spare.

Brief Scores:

LEIC: 115/9 in 20 overs (Harry Deardon 27, Colin Ackermann 26, Fidel Edwards 4/22)

WARKS: 117/3 in 14.5 overs (Ashton Agar 41*, Sam Hain 31, Callum Parkinson 1/24)

Result: Warwickshire won by 7 wickets.

Hampshire vs Kent – North Group

In this thrilling encounter, Hampshire batted first and scored 145 runs. Skipper James Vince led from the front and scored 51 off 35 balls before he dollied one back to Mohammad Nabi. Sam Northeast was the other impressive performer who scored 35 runs from 39 balls. This wasn’t a big score and could have been chased down easily.

But the Hampshire bowlers made life extremely tough for the Kent batsmen. None of the players who batted in the top-four made big contributions. At 93/6, it seemed improbable for the team to reach the target. But Alex Blake came to the rescue with an unbelievable knock. 16 runs were needed off the last over. Only four runs came from the first three balls. Then, he smashed the next two deliveries for sixes handing his team over with a memorable win.

Brief Scores:

HAM: 145/5 in 20 overs (James Vince 51, Sam Northeast 35, Hardus Viljoen 2/20)

KENT: 146/8 in 19.5 overs (Alex Blake 57*, Oliver Robinson 20, Kyle Abbott 3/22)

Result: Kent won by 2 wickets.