Adam Thomas hits an unbeaten 83 in Surrey’s thrilling win.

Surrey cruises home

The Surrey academy showed once again that they are a real force in this year’s T20 Blast, as they chased down a target of 255 with a consummate display of character and shot-making. Chasing down the total with forty-one balls to spare, they posted a wonderful six-wicket victory for the local fans at Guildford.

Chase well underway

Making a great start to the run chase, the opening stand set the platform for the well-paced Surrey innings that followed. Ryan Patel and Dom Sibley both played attacking cricket from the off, as they put the Steelbacks bowlers under the cosh from the get-go.

Scoring at the rate of nearly eight runs an over, the pair put on ninety-one runs for the first wicket inside twelve overs, before Sibley was out.

Sibley finds form

During his brief stay at the crease, Dom Sibley looked in great touch as he scampered thirty-three runs from his twenty-one-ball innings.

Displaying some real power, he sent two huge sixes over the fence to great applause from the home supporters. The first of these came in the sixth over when he sent a beautiful drive from Liam Guthrie straight into a petrol station.

Patel plays a wonderful innings

Though Sibley may have got the headlines, it was young Ryan Patel who stood firm at the other end in the early overs.

Scoring a fabulous sixty-four from fifty-five balls, he hit the boundary rope on nine occasions and sent the ball over the fence twice. Showing real poise, he eventually fell to the spin of Rob Keogh, having put Surrey firmly in the driver’s seat.

Thomas grows in stature

Coming out to bat, Adam Thomas looked as if he’d been there all along as he scored an unbeaten eighty-three from eighty-four balls.

Showing that he’s in sublime form, Thomas has now scored over two hundred runs this season with only one innings being a failure. Looking utterly composed, he bludgeoned anything that came his way, showing signs of being a serious threat in future T20 matches.

Rory Burns adds useful runs

Adding twenty-seven runs to the tally, Rory Burns scored at a healthy rate before falling cheaply after hitting a six from India legend Yuzvendra Chahal.

It was then up to skipper Josh Blake to see out the tail in partnership with Thomas, as he drove in thirty-six runs before departing. In doing so, Blake and Thomas put on an easy eighty-run stand to see out the rest of the required overs and post an emphatic win.

Northamptonshire suffer early blow

Chased by some stunning bowling from Surrey, Northamptonshire struggled to get going as the innings got underway. Having been asked to bat first, they lost early wickets with Ricardo Vasconcelos and Rob Keogh both falling cheaply.

Their bowlers continued to put the pressure on the home side, as they made life extremely difficult for the Steelbacks openers.

McSweeney and Bartlett turn things around

Nathan McSweeney and George Bartlett were the next to come out, and both looked eager to turn things around for Northamptonshire.

Bailing out their beleaguered teammates, the two new openers took their time before accelerating the scoring. Rotating the strike beautifully, they punished the loose balls well to put on an important ninety-seven-run stand for the fourth wicket.

Managing to secure their third half-century scores of the day in their respective first three T20 innings this month, they looked set to turn the game around. This was before the all-important thirty-ninth over saw the collapse of the entire Steelbacks innings.

Key blow to Northants

Taking their chances, Northamptonshire then proceeded to take two crucial wickets in the all-important thirty-ninth over. Having seen off the threat of Vasconcelos earlier on and then getting rid of Rob Keogh, the Surrey bowlers again excelled under pressure.

First George Bartlett was out for an unlucky sixty-two before Nathan McSweeney chopped onto his own stumps for sixty-four just two balls later.

Majid bowls a wonderful spell

Left-arm spinner Yousef Majid proved to be a real thorn in the side of the Northamptonshire innings as he bowled ten wonderful overs. Having got rid of two dangerous batters, he picked up two very important wickets for only forty-two runs.

By taking out the dangerous lower order and seeing off the middle overs, Majid set the platform nicely for his team-mates to then chase down a relatively small total with absolute ease in this afternoon’s encounter.