Twenty20 specialists show their worth as surprise packets thrive
Some unexpected teams lead as the group stage approaches its halfway point, and there’s a return for old friends too
Ball one: Lintott on a trot
The first time I saw Jake Lintott bowl, television commentators made much of him being a part-timer with a job in a school, giving the impression that he was a Gentleman of the 1950s or that plucky qualifier who leads The Open on day one at 8am, but misses the cut by 10 on Friday evening.
The pictures told a different story. His left-arm wrist spin was full of imagination and confidence and, in England at least, is very rare. Moreover, he had that bounce in his demeanour that comes after a late start in the game and numerous rejections. Pathways are important, but they don’t suit everyone, perhaps especially those who dedicate themselves to the sport’s hardest art.
I was surprised that Warwickshire Bears let him go to Kent Spitfires and their decision (how are Kent suddenly getting so much right?) has paid off already, his three wickets reducing Surrey from 44-2 to 53-5, those mid-innings wickets so valuable in the Blast. In this year’s competition, Lintott has five wickets and the best economy rate in the country – you can’t hit what you can’t see.
There was no way back for Surrey from there, Kent leapfrogging them to go second in the South Group.
Ball two: Vince says vincerò, and does
Above Kent, one finds another surprise packet – well, maybe not.
Hampshire are enduring another struggling season in the Championship, but a flattening of Middlesex rounded off a hat-trick of wins for the Hawks in the Blast. Of course, personnel are different, one of the aspects of the season that makes narratives hard to construct or follow, but also gives counties a chance to revive a flagging campaign.
Liam Dawson is available again, but surely the biggest lift to the club comes from on to the field behind James Vince, the captain and favourite son back home. But it’s not all golden oldies – the very promising 17 year old, Manny Lumsden, has played in three matches of four and nobody sleeps when his rockets are whistling by.
Ball three: Steelbacks backing their Aussie
In the snappily titled Central and West Group, the snappily titled Northamptonshire Steelbacks boast the only 100% record in the Blast.
It wasn’t quite “Our Aussie against your Aussie” but Beau Webster and Chris Lynn were at the crease for 39 of the match’s 40 overs.
Webster, having endured a very funny run out (for which he was entirely to blame) two days earlier, gave a rather more constructive response than glaring at Rob Yates by belting 97 to lift the Warwickshire Bears to an imposing 208/7, the kind of score that demands a batting side goes big in the powerplay and keeps going big after too.
Lynn, calling upon 309 previous T20s (how can he tell one from another?) did exactly that, registering his highest score – 115 not out – in his 310th match.
Back in the day, reaching a target in the final over would look like a tight match, but, wickets in hand, it really isn’t these days. Good entertainment for the crowd, but the EdgBLASTon crowd (sorry about the typo last week – forgivable I think) might have preferred a first win of the season.
Ball four: Crane good again for high-flying Glamorgan
Having lost a couple of tight matches, another of the season’s teams of the year so far, Glamorgan, got their T20 season underway marmelising a 172 run target set by Somerset. Tom Banton led the way for them, but was out for 59 at the end of the seventh over, as Nathan McAndrew and Mason Crane, enjoying a fantastic Spring, reined them in.
Kiran Carlson may have ridden his luck, but he paid for the whole of his bat (not exactly paid, but you know what I mean) and the game was done before he was out for 109 in the 12th over.
Is he taking a leaf from the remarkable Wunderkind, Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, whose hitting for Rajasthan Royals really does have to be seen to be believed. “No Fear” is too small a phrase to describe his attitude and slogging is too crude to describe the shots – well, some of them. Carlson also goes in at the top of the order, has lightning fast hands and, as captain, answers to nobody but himself if he crashes and burns.
It seems ridiculous to talk of professional cricketers mimicking a 15 year-old, but, like those batting on off stump after Steven Smith showed that you wouldn’t be LBW to one ball in ten or raising the bat in the stance, as Graham Gooch did back in the day, I think we will see openers try to do what the kid does. Easier said than done, of course.
Ball five: role models roll Durham
Yorkshire top the North Group after Jonny Bairstow and James Wharton’s 69 runs partnership got them to 151/9, the kind of score that is always described as giving the bowlers something to defend, with the “But good luck with that!” left unsaid.
With the women’s game played earlier, there was ample evidence that Chester-le-Street was not an easy ground on which to score quickly and Yorkshire’s spinners strangled the life out of the chase, Durham subsiding to 93 all out in the 17th over, a couple of run outs not helping.
What should not be worthy of remark but, given the history of Yorkshire County Cricket Club, nevertheless is, concerns the composition of the XI. Four of the White Rose’s bowlers (Hasan Ali, Farheem Ashraf, Moeen Ali and Jafer Chohan) are of South Asian heritage. If you can’t be what you can’t see, the corollary is that lots of young lads and lasses from Bradford, Leeds and elsewhere in the three ridings can now see what they can be.
Three in a row for the Yorkies – they’ll be a welcome addition to Finals Day if they carry on like this.
Ball six: the other Andersson shines
Derbyshire Falcons are their closest challengers after two wins in a week, the first a remarkable personal triumph for Martin Andersson, another star of the season so far.
Andersson was in the handy category at Middlesex, but was never going to take as many wickets nor score as many runs as Ryan Higgins, so, at 29, it was probably a smart move to seek pastures new. He opened his 2026 Championship campaign with a maiden double ton, but it was in the match against Leicestershire that he went into full wrecking ball mode.
Bat in hand, he made 57 off 29 balls opening and then, on as fourth change, bagged six wickets, two of them caught by himself. To nobody’s surprise, he was named Man of the Match.