T20 specialists show their worth as surprise packets thrive in Blast

1. 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 shots 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, that is very rare. He also 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 let him go to Kent, who are suddenly getting so much right. Their decision to sign him 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.

2. Vince says vincerò, and he does

Hampshire are enduring another tough season in the Championship, but they flattened Middlesex to round off a hat-trick of wins in the Blast. Of course, the players on the field are different – one of the aspects of the season that makes narratives hard to construct or follow – but it 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 the returning James Vince. But it’s not all golden oldies – Manny Lumsden, the very promising 17-year-old, has played in three of their four matches and nobody sleeps when his rockets are whistling by.

James Vince batts during the T20 match between Somerset and Hampshire Hawks

3. Steelbacks backing their Aussie

In the snappily titled Central and West Group, the snappily titled Northamptonshire Steelbacks boast the only 100% winning 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 runout (for which he was entirely to blame) two days earlier, gave a more constructive response than glaring at Rob Yates by belting 97 to lift Warwickshire 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, 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 is not these days. It was good entertainment, but the EdgBLASTon crowd (sorry about the typo last week) might have preferred a first win of the season.

4. Crane good again for high-flying Glamorgan

Glamorgan, another of the teams of the year so far in the Championship, have lost a couple of tight matches in the Blast. But they got their campaign under way by marmalising 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 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 would not be LBW to one ball in 10 – 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.

Kiran Carlson hit a century for Glamorgan as they beat Somerset in Cardiff

5. Role models roll Durham

Yorkshire top the North Group after Jonny Bairstow and James Wharton’s 69-run 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 Yorkshire’s history nevertheless is, concerns the composition of the XI. Four of the their 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.

That’s three wins in a row for the Yorkies. They will be a welcome addition to Finals Day if they carry on like this.

6. The other Andersson shines

Derbyshire 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 he was never going to take as many wickets r score as many runs as Ryan Higgins. So, at the age of 29, it was probably a smart move to seek pastures new. He opened the Championship campaign with a maiden double ton, but it went into full wrecking ball mode against Leicestershire.

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 player of the match.