In what was an interesting set of fixtures in the T20 Blast-North Group, the games didn't disappoint with plenty of action across all matches.
Prince Inspires Lancs Win
Durham Jets made a flying start to their innings scoring quickly, which including a shining innings from Jet's opener Mark Stoneman, he scored 51 from just 29 balls. Lancashire produced a great display of spin bowling which not only included the key wickets of Collingwood, Muchall and Hastings but also and more importantly killed the run-rate.
The Lancashire bowling was so economical that Durham didn't even hit a boundary from the 11th over onwards. The lower order collapse left Durham with a well under par 141 all out with a ball to spare.
The Lancashire batsmen still had a job to do however and they did it well. Early wickets for Durham, inlcuding opener Horton who was bowled by Rushworth on his first ball, and Brown bowled by the same bowler in the fifth over, gave Durham hope that an unlikely victory could be possible.
However a great innings from Ashwell Prince helped Lancashire retake conrtol of the game. A quick cameo from Faulkner, he scored 23 off just 14 balls, took the game out of the Jet's reach. Durham finally dismissed Faulkner with a fine display of quick thinking and ingenuity in the outfield between Pringle and Borthwick.
As Faulker went to heave an Arshad delivery over the leg side, Pringle initally took the catch with a full length dive. Pringle though seemed as though he would slide over the boundary with the ball in hand.
However he was quick thinking enough to toss the ball to the supporting Borthwick who juggled the ball before taking the catch at the fifth time of asking. It wasn't enough however and the innings of 63 not out from Prince carried Lancs across the line rather comfortably as it turned out.
Vikings and Foxes in Extraordinary Tie
When Yorkshire's bowlers managed to restrict Leicestershire to just 142 they must have been confident of securing the victory. With only Andrea Agathangelou providing a score of any real substance as he scored 40 off 26 ball and no other batsman managing to break into the thirties.
With no York bowler proving to be overly expensive and every bowler but Maxwell taking a wicket, the Viking's appeared to be well on top.
However the Foxes ensured that Yorkshire's chase didn't get off to a good start as the Viking's lost Finch and Hodd early with the pair only scoring 4 between them. Jonny Bairstow continued his rich vein of form scoring a quickfire 37 off 22 balls to help Yorkshire regain some control.
Useful cameos from Gale, Maxwell and Rhodes ensured that the Yorkshire chase kept ticking over. Jack Leaning top scored for Yorkshire with 48 not out to ensure that Yorkshire was in touch with the run rate right up until the end.
At the end of the match both team were so equal that there wasn't even a run to seperate the two. The Foxes may feel unlucky as they lost just 7 wickets in comparison to Yorkshire's 8. However the T20 Blast doesn't use wickets as a way of deciding the result and the match ended up tied.
Northants Display Ensures Tight Victory Over Rapids
After Worcesteshire Rapids won the toss and sent the Steelbacks into bat, they will probably have been regretting their decision after Northants posted an imposing 193 from their 20 overs. Both openers gave Northants a good start as Levi scored 19 from 11 and England new boy Willey scored 31 from 12 balls. Cobb and Duckett then came in and both struggled scoring 2 and 7 respectively. A run a ball 23 from Wakely got the Steelbacks back on track. A starring innings from Crook, who scored 56 not out from just 35 balls before Kleinveldt rocketed the Steelbacks to the next level with an outstanding 42 off just 12 balls.
The Rapids chase was always going to be an uphill struggle, that struggle only got steeper when their England star Moeen Ali went for a golden duck. However Worcesteshire soon got themselves back into contention as Mitchell, Kohler-Cadmore and Munro all posted quick 30+'s each.
D'Oliveira couldn't join in on the scoring as he could only post 8. Whiteley scored 41 not out from 29 to increase the Rapid's run-rate and a useful cameo from Cox to score 24 managed to get the Rapids to 191. The Rapids can feel hard done-by 191 would usually be more than enough to win a match and they were simply unlucky to come up against a free-scoring Steelbacks batting order.
McCullum disappoints, Bears still triumph
A game much hyped for not only being a repeat of last years final but also for being the exciting Brendon McCullum's debut for Birmingham. With Lancashire being the defeated team in last years final, it was expected that they may be out for revenge and therefore be more likely to win this game. It wasn't to be however.
The Bears got off to a good start thanks to a 40 from 33 balls from Chopra and a quickfire if slightly disappointing 18 from 14 balls for the big show McCullum. The Ireland captain Will Porterfield contributed a controlled 36 from 38 balls.
It wasn't enough however as a lower order collapse, where no other batsmen managed to get into double figures, left the Bears on an extremely under par 137 from their 20 overs.
After Lancashire had chased down 141 at Durham just the day before, a target of just 138 must have made a Lancashire victory seem a foregone conclusion. However exceptional bowling displays from Gordon and Poysden ensured that no Lancashire batsman got a score above 30 and just two batsmen got past 20.
Gordon finished his spell of 4 overs with exceptional figures of 4-20, while Poysden finished with figures 0-25 from his 4 overs which left him with an exceptional economy rate of 6.25.
Derby batting success defeats Notts
Derbyshire's batsmen performed spectaculary as a unit to propel Derby to an expcetional score of 201-7 from their 20 overs. While only one batsmen went on to score fifty, every batsman apart from one got into double figures and every batsman scored quickly.
The fifty came from C Hughes and including 5 fours and 3 sixes. He was backed up with 37 from Rutherford and 24 from A Hughes as Derby smashed their way through their innings ensuring Notts had a huge mountain to climb.
Notts' chase began poor as Alex Hales was dismissed for a golden duck after he was bowled by Rimmington. The chase was brought back into control with 22 from Lumb, a magnificent 66 form Wessels, a measured 21 from Patel and then a quickfire 33 from James Taylor.
Once Patel was dismissed however scoreboard pressure got to the Outlaws and with every batsmen feeling the need to score quickly, Notts suffered a collapse of epic proportions as every other batsmen was dismissed before any of them could get even get to double figures.
In the end Notts were all out for 167 from just 19 overs and Derbyshire ended up as comfortable victors as they won by 34 runs in the bottom of the table clash.