T20 Blast 2018, Day 21: Round-up

On the twenty-first day of the Vitality T20 Blast, there were two South group games that were played. In the first game, Somerset faced Hampshire in Taunton. It was Sussex who was up against Gloucestershire in the second encounter of the day.

While the first match was the high-scoring one, the second game ended up being a drag. Gloucestershire with an impressive win has moved up to the top of the points table in the South group with 11 points from 7 games. Somerset is currently second with 10 points from 8 games. Here is how the action progressed on the 21st day of the league:

Somerset vs Hampshire – South Group

Hampshire won the toss and opted to field first. Batting first in their home ground, Somerset were dealt with severe blows right in the first over losing two wickets. Soon, they were down to 17/3 in the 3rd over. However, they recovered beautifully from there on.

James Hildreth’s knock of 57 runs off 44 balls was mighty impressive. Skipper Lewis Gregory hit 24 runs off just 9 balls towards the end as the team ultimately reached 197 runs for the loss of 7 wickets in 20 overs. Chris Wood was unbelievable with a 5-wicket haul in the innings.

Hampshire gave a tough competition in the chase with their skipper James Vince leading from the front. Vince scored 74 off 45 balls at the top. However, he didn’t get much support from the other batsmen until Liam Dawson came in at No 6.

Although Dawson provided some exploits, it was already too late. But his 82 off 41 balls provided some hope. Unfortunately, he got out at the wrong time in the 20th over and hence Somerset fell short of the target by 16 runs. Jemore Taylor picked the second five-wicket haul of the match and returned with exceptional figures of 5/15.

Brief Scores:

Somerset: 197/7 in 20 overs (James Hildreth 57, Corey Anderson 32, Chris Wood 5/32)

Hampshire: 181/9 in 20 overs (Liam Dawson 82, James Vince 74, Jerome Taylor 5/15)

Result: Somerset won by 16 runs

Sussex vs Gloucestershire – South Group

Sussex won the toss and opted to bat first. But this move didn’t really work out for the team. Their batsmen kept losing wickets one after the other and hence didn’t have the momentum on their side to put a good total. Laurie Evans, with 46 off 36 balls, was the highest scorer of the innings. Sussex posted 127 runs for the loss of 8 wickets in 20 overs.

Although it was thought that it would be an easy chase, the Sussex bowlers posed questions to the Gloucestershire batsmen. Opener Miles Hammond scored 35 runs off 28 balls. Rashid Khan and Danny Briggs picked two wickets each in the innings. Jack Taylor scored 23 runs off 10 balls at the end to finish things off quickly for his team. Gloucestershire got to the target with 10 balls to spare after losing six wickets.

Brief Scores:

Sussex: 127/8 in 20 overs (Laurie Evans 46, Jofra Archer 26*, David Payne 2/15)

Gloucestershire: 129/6 in 18.2 overs (Miles Hammond 35, Jack Taylor 23*, Rashid Khan 2/14)

Result: Gloucestershire won by 4 wickets

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