T20 Blast: Durham beat North leaders Lancs as Somerset top South – BBC Sport

Durham took top honours from Sunday’s six T20 Blast group games by upsetting North leaders Lancashire – as Somerset also enjoyed success to go top in the South.

On a day of 434 runs at Chester-le-Street, swashbuckling scores from Graham Clark and David Bedingham looked to have taken the hosts out of reach.

But visitors Lancashire kept battling, only going down in the end by two runs in a dramatic climax.

Lancashire remain top of the North Group, two points clear of three other sides: Birmingham Bears, who won at Derby; Leicestershire, who beat Yorkshire at Headingley; and Northants, who won at Worcester.

In the South Group, Somerset are now a point clear of second-placed Surrey, with Sussex in third and Essex fourth.

In the day’s only other game in the South, Gloucestershire won the meeting of two teams at the wrong end of the table by beating Kent at Canterbury.

Clark (87 from 57 balls) and Bedingham (78 from 42) laid the platform for Durham, hitting four sixes each in a 109-run stand as Durham ran up 218-3 – their highest T20 total against Lancashire.

Durham then took wickets at regular intervals, spearheaded by an unbelievable caught-and-bowled from Paul Coughlin to remove Matty Hurst and three wickets for Lancashire old boy Callum Parkinson.

From 115-6, some heroic lower-order hitting from Chris Green (38), George Balderson (37no) and Jack Blatherwick (17) almost got Lancs home, but they fell just short on 216-8.

Northants improved their hopes of making the knockout stages as they completed a double over Worcestershire to make it four wins in six matches.

But Worcestershire’s fourth straight defeat leaves them up against it.

On the two-paced hybrid New Road pitch, the visitors had a stand of 75 between Matthew Breetzke (52) and Sikandar Raza (43) to thank for reaching 143-6.

Although Bears old boy Ethan Brookes hit 42, his joint highest T20 score, and skipper Brett D’Oliveira made 34, the hosts finished short on 132-7 – chiefly stemmed by Ben Sanderson’s 3-16.

Birmingham Bears made it four wins in six matches as they climbed into the top four by beating Derbyshire.

A 93-run stand between Dan Mousley (66no) and Sam Hain (43) helped the Bears to a seven-wicket win despite Derbyshire opener David Lloyd’s 50.

Leicestershire loan men Lewis Goldsworthy (3-20) and Scott Currie (3-19) shared six wickets as the Foxes fought back to beat Yorkshire at Headingley to claim a fourth win in seven games.

Opener Rishi Patel top-scored with 64 off 47 balls as the Foxes were bowled out for 166 with a ball to spare.

The Tykes’ star-studded batting line-up cruised to 100-2 in the 13th over and looked well set but, just as against the Bears on Friday night, they fell short.

Joe Root was caught at long on for 30, then skipper Shan Masood fell too as the hosts slumped to 124-6 in the 17th over before finishing on 146-9 to lose by 20 runs.

The Foxes jump into the North Group’s top four, while Yorkshire are seventh, having now won only three of their first six games.

Will Smeed blazed 86 from 48 balls to set the foundations for a fourth Somerset win on the bounce as they thrashed Glamorgan by 108 runs to go top of the South Group.

The opener smashed nine fours and five sixes at Taunton before he was yorked by Dan Douthwaite – part of a middle-order collapse as Somerset lost five wickets for 15, slumping to 123-7.

Douthwaite finished with 4-37, but Craig Overton (42 from 24 balls) and Roelof van der Merwe (21no from 15) rescued Somerset with a counter-attacking partnership of 59 that lifted them to 193-8.

Having lost both openers inside the first two overs, Glamorgan’s innings was soon in tatters as Lewis Gregory (3-11) claimed the key wickets of Marnus Labuschagne and Sam Northeast, who top-scored with 24 from 15.

Overton (2-35) and Jake Ball (2-9) continued the demolition job and the visitors tumbled to 85 all out in 13.2 overs, with Van der Merwe taking two wickets from his first two deliveries to seal victory.

Miles Hammond’s career-best 80 from 41 balls helped Gloucestershire secure a first win in five games, cantering home by nine wickets against Kent Spitfires at Canterbury.

Gloucestershire restricted the hosts to 125 all out, with Matt Taylor taking 3-30 before Hammond and Cameron Bancroft (39 from 30) amassed an opening stand of 119 and victory was sealed with 8.2 overs to spare.

Cardiff: Glamorgan v Gloucestershire (18:30 BST)

Chelmsford: Essex v Hampshire (19:00 BST)

Lord’s: Middlesex v Surrey (19:00 BST)

Hove: Sussex v Kent (19:00 BST)

Edgbaston: Birmingham Bears v Northants (19:00 BST)

Headingley: Yorkshire v Lancashire (19:15 BST)