Lancashire, Leicestershire, Somerset and Essex among the winners...
Saturday 6 June 2015 14:16, UK
Jos Buttler outgunned England team-mates Joe Root and Gary Ballance as Lancashire won a thrilling Roses clash with Yorkshire by four wickets in the T20 Blast.
Buttler (71 no from 35 balls) hit five fours and five sixes as Lightning blasted 82 from the final six overs to chase down Yorkshire's 185-8, a scampered single off the last ball securing the win after Glenn Maxwell (3-15) missed a run-out opportunity on Friday evening.
Maxwell (18) had earlier reverse-swept the first ball of the match for a maximum, before Root (55 from 39) and Ballance (31 from 18) swelled the Tykes' total, the latter creaming three sixes.
Moeen Ali was another England international to impress in the North Group on Friday, drilling 90 from 50 balls as Worcestershire beat Northamptonshire by 14 runs in a high-scoring affair.
Moeen's innings helped the Rapids post 211-3 and the Steelbacks could only reply with 197-7, despite a fine knock from Josh Cobb (80 from 44), as Saeed Ajmal (3-53) pocketed three wickets upon his return to Worcestershire colours.
Triumph
Leicestershire, meanwhile, backed up their first County Championship win in almost three years by knocking off Nottinghamshire at Trent Bridge, debutant Umar Akmal (76no) helping the Foxes to a six-wicket triumph.
Alex Hales (54) starred for the Outlaws with the bat as they made 148-7 but a slow over rate with the ball saw Leicestershire handed six extra runs and procure their third win in five Blast games.
Derbyshire lost to Durham by five runs in the other North Group clash, a fifty from Tilakaratne Dilshan (54) not enough for the Falcons, with John Hastings (3-29) helping the Dynamos defend a score of 147.
Chris Gayle, meanwhile, was in breath-taking form for Somerset in the South Group, on the day the county learned wicketkeeper-batsman Craig Kieswetter would be forced to retire following a serious eye injury.
Gayle, whose previous two innings for Somerset were 92 and 151 not out, crunched an unbeaten 85 as the Taunton team chalked off their target of 173 against Hampshire for the loss of just two wickets, Peter Trego (51) assisting the Jamaican after James Vince (64) had passed fifty for Hampshire.
Essex beat Surrey by six wickets at The Oval - Ravi Bopara (57) and Tom Westley (54) seeing the Eagles home after Alastair Cook (8) went cheaply - while Glamorgan edged Middlesex by four runs in Wales.
The most routine win of the evening, though, was recorded by Gloucestershire, the Gladiators smashing Kent by nine wickets, Michael Klinger (69no) and Ian Cockbain (54no) easing their side past the Spitfires’ total of 156 with 16 balls to spare.
