[Ska'dForLife-WBA]

T20 Blast, Northern Group

vs Northamptonshire

Wantage Road, Northampton

Northants innings: As the latest heatwave stuttered to its conclusion with a few thundery showers around the country, the Pears won the toss and put Northants in to bat. After a tight opening two overs, the home side got motoring, and it required a crafty bit of bowling off Pat Brown to coax Ben Duckett into a skyer off the last ball of the powerplay, leaving Northants 54-1. The innings continued in the same pattern thereafter as the visitors chipped away with regular wickets, only to see the home side continuing to find the boundary. Moeen Ali had Richard Levi caught at backward point and Kyle Coetzer off a top-edge, while Dolly tempted Josh Cobb into holing out in the deep. Ed Barnard had two big scalps with Wakely caught and bowled and Crook caught behind, and Pat Brown finished with three wickets of his own, but the non-stop flow of runs meant that Northants concluded their twenty with a very handy total of 187-9.

Worcs innings: If there's one major criticism I routinely make of this Worcestershire white-ball side, it's that they seldom make things easy for themselves; however, tonight was a glorious exception. Despite some early good fortune with slightly streaky shots, from the moment that Joe Clarke picked up the first boundary of the innings off Rory Kleinveldt, there was no doubting the intent of the Pears batsmen. In his penultimate game for the county, Martin Guptill in particular was determined to make it a night to remember. After taking twenty-two off a single over from Richard Gleeson in the course of ushering Worcs to an astonishing 97-0 off the powerplay alone, the Kiwi completed his half-century in just 20 balls with successive sixes; the joint third-fastest half-century for a Pears batsmen in T20 after Ross Whiteley (18) and John Hastings (19), and alongside Gareth Andrew. And of course, the fun didn't stop there. After a bizarre reprieve that saw him score six off a clean catch by Seekkuge Prasanna that went pear-shaped when the Sri Lankan inadvertently stepped over the boundary rope, Guptill polished off his century in just 34 balls: the fastest by a Worcestershire batsman in T20, the second-fastest in the English domestic game, and the fourth-fastest worldwide. When he finally departed on 102 after skying one from Gleeson, he left the Pears 162-1 needing 26 more runs off 59 balls; an equation even Worcestershire would struggle to f**k up. After the second-highest partnership ever in Worcs T20 cricket - trailing only the 175 made by Hick and Solanki against Northants at Kidderminster in 2007 - the follow-up was always going to be a bit of an anti-climax, but when the moment came, Travis Head was enough of a showman to see things off with a final six, winning the game with a mere 41 balls remaining.

Worcestershire WIN by nine wickets

The Verdict: I'm not sure I've ever seen a run-chase like 188 knocked off in so much style anywhere in the world, let alone by Worcestershire. In a record-breaking week all round, this was a far happier outcome than the Championship result against Somerset. The trick now is to repeat the performance against Lancashire in Sunday's top-of-the-table clash. It'll be Guptill's last game for the Pears, and here's hoping he gives us a few more fireworks to remember him by.