Dan Mousley and Will Smeed inspire Birmingham Bears and Somerset to key wins
The Bears will be in the Vitality Blast quarter-finals while Somerset secured a home tie.
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Dan Mousley shone with bat and ball as Birmingham Bears clinched a Vitality Blast quarter-final spot with a convincing 53-run win over rivals Worcestershire on Friday.
Mousley hit 51 in his side’s imposing 228 for four and then took four for 41 as the Rapids were restricted to 175 for nine by the North Group leaders.
Rob Yates also scored 59 for the Bears and Glenn Maxwell added 44 from 20 deliveries while Mitchell Santner top-scored for the visitors with 56.
South Group leaders Somerset secured a home quarter-final with a tight four-wicket win over Gloucestershire at Taunton.
The hosts made a fine start as they reduced Gloucestershire to nine for three but Grant Roelofsen’s 52 and an unbeaten 42 from Jack Taylor helped the visitors post a competitive 186 for eight.
Will Smeed cracked 78 from 42 balls in reply but it took further contributions from Ben Green (37), Kasey Aldridge (32no) and Craig Overton (17no) to ensure the job was completed with three balls to spare.
Elsewhere, Daniel Bell-Drummond smashed a century and Grant Stewart took a hat-trick as Kent claimed a crushing 55-run win over Middlesex.
Bell-Drummond hit 12 fours and four sixes in a 58-ball 111 and shared in a 127-run opening stand with Tawanda Muyeye (50) as Kent ran up 228 for three.
Middlesex were bowled out for 173 in 19 overs in reply as George Linde, Joey Evison and Stewart each took three wickets.
England white-ball captain Jos Buttler hit a 39-ball 83 with six sixes and eight fours as Lancashire beat Derbyshire by 27 runs in a rain-affected match at Old Trafford.
Liam Livingstone added an unbeaten 47 as the Lightning made 177 for four from their reduced allocation of 15 overs.
Derbyshire could muster just 150 for seven in response.
Chris Lynn (62) and Saif Zaib (55) hit half-centuries as Northamptonshire powered to an emphatic 92-run win over the North Group’s bottom side Leicestershire.
The pair put on 114 for the third wicket to help the Steelbacks to 210 for seven.
The Foxes then crumbled to 118 all out despite 49 from England squad member Rehan Ahmed. Ben Sanderson was the pick of the bowling with three for 20 as the Steelbacks kept themselves in the quarter-final picture.
Shadab Khan struck 87 from 53 balls as Sussex beat Glamorgan by 20 runs. The Pakistan all-rounder hit five fours and five sixes in his side’s 182 for six at Cardiff.
Cam Fletcher top-scored with 57 in reply and Sam Northeast weighed in with 44 but Glamorgan fell short after Brad Currie and Tymal Mills took two wickets apiece.
Hampshire beat Essex by four wickets by four wickets after 76 from captain James Vince in a close finish in Southampton.
James Fuller also scored 56 but Benny Howell’s 36no and a late flurry from Liam Dawson were also needed for the hosts to reach their target of 210 in the last over.
Dan Lawrence (70) and Feroze Khushi (61) were the mainstays of Essex’s 209 for seven after putting on 127 for the first wicket.
The encounter between Durham and Yorkshire at the Riverside was declared a no result after rain intervened. Yorkshire were 49 for one after 8.1 overs when play was abandoned.