Yorkshire end winless run while Robin Das inspires Essex
Yorkshire clinched their first win of the season in any format with an eight-run Vitality Blast victory against Nottinghamshire at Trent Bridge.
England’s Dawid Malan hit 95 off 56 balls and skipper Shan Masood’s 34 off 23 helped Yorkshire post 182 for seven after electing to bat first, and that proved to be enough.
Notts’ Alex Hales struck a half-century for the second consecutive night and New Zealand international Colin Munro made 46, while David Wiese took two for 32 for the visitors, who chalked up their first T20 win at Trent Bridge since 2015.
Yorkshire, who prop up Division Two in the LV= County Championship after failing to win any of their first five matches, had lost their previous three Blast fixtures. They face Roses rivals Lancashire at Headingley on Thursday.
Robin Das continued his impressive breakthrough week with a maiden Blast half-century as Essex belatedly began their campaign with a three-wicket win over Gloucestershire.
Das, 21, hit a century on his first-class debut against Ireland on Friday before crashing 69 from 33 balls to help Essex towards a daunting 196 target.
That huge Gloucestershire score was in large part down to Ben Charlesworth’s brutal 19-ball 50 – the quickest for the county in T20s.
But Das, together with fellow homegrown player Feroze Khushi’s 34 off 14 balls and Tom Westley’s 31 not out, guided Essex to victory with five balls to spare.
Somerset beat Kent by 13 runs via the Duckworth-Lewis Method in a rain-affected match at Canterbury.
Three interruptions marred the contest, but Somerset eventually restricted Kent to 112 in pursuit of a revised target of 126 from 15 overs despite 29 from skipper Sam Billings.
Ben Green took three for 19 and Somerset team-mate Lewis Gregory stifled the hosts when they needed 18 off the last over.
Somerset were all out for 154 from 20 overs, with their biggest contribution coming from Tom Lammonby (34), while Kent’s Wes Agar took three for 18.