T20 Blast

Great start to the Blast, with the live game on Sky ending in a tie. With the Rapids & the Outlaws. Worcester posted a below par 152-6 & Notts openers, Clarke & Hales added 76, & then wickets continued to fall. The game ended with Trego being run out off the last ball going for the a second run to win.

Bairstow smashed a 48 ball century against Worcestershire Rapids at New Road tonight. What's more remarkable was that after collapsing in agony with an ankle injury going for his 56th run it looked unlikely. He received treatment & was strapped up, & continued with a runner. What followed was carnage for the Rapids bowlers, as he mainly dealt in sixes & fours, scoring a further 56 runs from the next 17 balls. In all he struck 10 sixes & 7 fours. One maximum over the New Road stand was said to be the biggest six on the ground by many local supporters.
A scan will be required to assess the injury, it looks likely that he will miss his last T20 match for Yorkshire against Durham, before he was due to link up with England for the T20 series against Sri Lanka, a week today. A big loss for both sides, as he is in the form of his life, top scoring in all 4 off Yorkshires matches, & the leading run-scorer in the comp, with a 73.75 average & a strike-rate of 175.59.

The collapse by Worcs was also noteworthy as they lost their last 7 wickets for 12 runs in 23 balls

it was great seeing Somerset win on Friday night, the amount of fans allowed in the ground went up again by 400 people so that made for a better atmosphere,
Tom Banton was great finally finding the form he had from last season with some big hitting and Will Smeed who has come through our academe looked really good making 50, he looks like a star in the making,
but the star of the show was Marchant de Lange hes a big strong South African who is really fast and accurate he was unplayable at times, not seen a player like that in Taunton in ages, amazed we got him and one of the usual rich county didn't through there money around to get him,
i was a bit disappointed in Hampshire not as good as i expected de Grandhomme was there best player by a mile with the bat, i thought Crane looked very good with the ball maybe England should give him another chance,

^^ Watched the games against Kent on Monday. Not the best spectacle for the spectators, with mist sweeping across the ground, the commentators had problems at times.
Looks like Banton was only warming up against Hampshire, as in partnership with South African star Devon Conway they chased a target of 169 with 25 balls remaining.
Banton struck 8 boundaries & 7 sixes, his hundred coming off just 47 balls. I think that Conway's calmness could really help Banton, a different dynamic to the one that worked so well with Babar Azam.
I'd really like to see Banton develop his game in 4 day cricket, I think he has the game to ;play Test cricket, he's massive talent who has the ability to hit good balls for runs, which is a great skill to have at International level with fewer loose deliveries.
For now he will have to join the very long list off white-ball openers that Englang can choose from.

^^ Looks like Somerset will be without Banton for the next couple of games, at least. His current form has been rewarded with a call-up to the England ODI squad as a replacement for Dawid Malan for the 3rd ODI on Sunday at Bristol. No point in him missing out playing for his county if he doesn't make England's starting XI.

(01-07-2021 11:59 )Boomerangutangangbang Wrote:  ^^ Looks like Somerset will be without Banton for the next couple of games, at least. His current form has been rewarded with a call-up to the England ODI squad as a replacement for Dawid Malan for the 3rd ODI on Sunday at Bristol. No point in him missing out playing for his county if he doesn't make England's starting XI.

i am not surprised but i just hope they play him, if hes not going to start then he should be back with us, to be honest i don't see why he cant play for us tomorrow night then go up to Bristol after that,

YORKSHIRE ! YORKSHIRE ! YORKSHIRE !

^^ I've calmed down a bit since Friday, we finally won a T20 against Lancs ! Great knock by Harry Brook, who I have been waiting for produce to form that his talent suggests, & in the hardest form of the game to achieve consistency. He has the most runs in the Blast with 463 runs at an average of 115.75 & a strike-rate of 156.41
Anyway a great game going down to the last over with a hat-trick by Kiwi fast bowler Lockie Ferguson, on the same night that his fellow countryman Adam Milne also took a hat-trick to take his side Kent to victory over Surrey.

Impressive striking from Somerset's Tom Lammonby with 90 from 36 balls. At 89-5 in the 15th over Gloucestershire were in control before Lammonby's assault, as he took his side to a par score, which they were able to defend.