Patel hits 41-ball ton as Foxes tie with Northants

Leicestershire opener Rishi Patel smashed a 41-ball century as the Foxes and Northants Steelbacks played out a thrilling tie in the T20 Blast.

Patel struck five sixes and 13 fours in his 104 as the Foxes chased a target of 209 but they ended on 208-7 despite Lewis Goldsworthy hitting the final ball of the game for four.

Birmingham Bears went top of North Group after a club-record fourth-wicket stand of 148 between Sam Hain (76 off 52 balls) and the precociously talented Jacob Bethell (71 not out off 45) sealed a five-wicket win over Worcestershire.

South Group leaders Surrey cruised to a nine-wicket victory after restricting Glamorgan to just 107-9, while elsewhere there were wins for Durham, Essex, Gloucestershire, Notts Outlaws and Sussex.

The competition now takes a two-week break for the return of the County Championship before resuming on 5 July.

Birmingham Bears began their game against Worcestershire full of confidence, having beaten Northants by 90 runs 24 hours earlier, when Bethell made an astonishing 56 not out off 16 balls.

With leaders Lancashire not in action, paceman Michael Booth marked his debut by removing Kashif Ali for eight, and the Bears spinners picked up wickets at regular intervals before Rob Jones (26) and Tom Taylor (21) shared an unbroken stand of 44 to see the home side to 155-7.

Ed Barnard, Dan Mousley and Alex Davies departed in the first two overs of the chase to leave them 7-3, but Hain and Bethell steadied the innings before starting to accelerate with the former first to 50 off 40 balls, three more than his partner.

Hain was caught behind off Taylor with the scores level and Chris Benjamin was bowled by the next ball before George Garton found the boundary to see them to 159-5 with 13 balls to spare and seal a fourth successive win.

Northants made the highest first-innings score of the evening as David Willey hit 71 off 48 balls against Leicestershire, sharing stands of 57 and 58 with Matthew Breetzke (47) and Sikandar Raza (36 not out off 14), in their 208-5.

But Patel - who scored 104 off 49 balls against Durham last year - set the tone for the chase by taking 18 off Willey's opening over of their reply, passing 50 off 22 balls, and continuing on to his century.

He was dropped off Willey at long-on when on 103 but only added one more run before he was caught at mid-wicket off Freddie Heldreich, but the spinner dropped Peter Handscomb off his own bowling later in the over.

The Foxes need 12 off the last over and although Ben Cox hit a four, both he and Handscomb (43) fell to Raphael Weatherall (4-50) before Goldsworthy did enough to ensure Patel's effort was not in a losing cause.

Yorkshire Vikings - captained by Dawid Malan in the absence of Shan Masood -suffered a setback in their push for a place in the knock-out stages of the Blast as they lost to Durham by three runs at the Riverside.

Graham Clark played-on to spinner Dan Moriarty (2-26) on 49 in the home side's 170-6, but Adam Lyth's 54 off 40 balls ensured Yorkshire stayed in contention - but needing eight off the final over, Ben Dwarshuis yielded only four and ended the game with a dot ball as they finished on 167-7.

Derbyshire skipper Samit Patel was hoping to "prove Notts wrong" on his return to Trent Bridge and took 2-24 as the home side totalled 173-5 - but he was bowled by Olly Stone for four as the Falcons mustered 165-8 in reply to lose by eight runs after Aneurin Donald had begun their chase with five sixes in his 52 off 26 balls.

In South Group, there were two sun-stopped-play interruptions as Essex attempted to chase a target of 157 against Kent at Canterbury, with the batters finding it hard to sight the ball clearly.

But once conditions improved, Michael Pepper - who made 101 against Middlesex earlier in the competition - brought up a 29-ball 50 with four off Matt Parkinson

He struck three sixes and eight fours before he was caught off Nathan Gilchrist for 76 with four still needed but Matt Critchley hit the winning runs from the final ball of the 15th over as they reached 157-5 to win by five wickets.

But there was no help from the weather for Glamorgan at The Oval as only one batter - Australia's Marnus Labuschagne - reached 20 as Surrey quicks Gus Atkinson (3-19) and Sean Abbott (3-25) made the most of a pitch with a little bit of zip.

Faced with a target of just 108, Surrey did the job in just nine overs for the loss of Dan Lawrence, who was caught of debutant Chris Sole for 27.

Dom Sibley and Laurie Evans hit two sixes each in an unbroken partnership of 55 - Sibley finishing with 44 off 26 balls and Evans 31 off just 13.

Somerset shrugged off the early loss of Will Smeed, to post a score of 188-4 against Gloucestershire at Bristol, with opener Tom Banton making 79 off 53 balls.

They looked favourites when spinner Jack Leach (2-36) had Beau Webster caught to leave the home side on 108-5 in the 14th over - but Ben Charlesworth and Ollie Price rose to the challenge with an unbroken stand of 82.

Price hit four sixes in his 43 not out off just 15 balls, while Charlesworth made 36 off 19, to see them to 190-5 with eight balls remaining and inflict holders Somerset's third defeat - the club's second highest T20 chase.

In the final game of the day, Sussex moved up to second place with a seven-run victory over Hampshire at the Utilita Bowl after posting 184-8, despite figures of 3-32 by Michael Neser.

James Vince hit his first T20 half-century of the summer before being bowled by James Coles for 53 as he added 88 with Joe Weatherley.

Needing an unlikely 25 off the last over, Weatherley hit four successive fours off Danny Lamb to reach 68 not out off 47 balls, but a bye was all they could manage from the final two deliveries and finished on 177-3.