Alex Hales hits 12 fours and four sixes in century for Notts Outlaws in win over Lancashire Lightning; Ben Stokes has treatment on hurt finger while batting but then takes 4-27 as Durham beat Birmingham Bears; Yorkshire Vikings see off Northamptonshire Steelbacks to head North Group
Saturday 26 June 2021 21:49, UK
Alex Hales smashed the fifth T20 century of his career with 101 from 66 balls as defending Vitality Blast champions Notts Outlaws secured a seven-run win over Lancashire Lightning.
Hales struck 12 fours and four sixes as he dominated Notts' total of 173-6 at Trent Bridge, with captain Steven Mullaney the next-highest scoring batsman with 25.
The opener completed a 64-ball ton with his fourth six as he rebounded from his first-ball duck against Derbyshire a day earlier.
Lancashire's Steven Croft (41 off 30), Alex Davies (39 off 15) and Luke Wood (33no off 25) kept Lightning in contention in the chase but scoring 17 from the final over proved beyond the visitors, with Luke Fletcher conceding just nine runs.
Lancashire lost Finn Allen (2) in the second over of the chase but were then 58-1 in the sixth over before tumbling to 101-6 in the 13th with Notts spinner Matt Carter adding to his dismissal of Allen by also accounting for Davies - who smashed five sixes in a blistering cameo - and Rob Jones (5).
Croft and Wood kept Lightning afloat but the former fell to Jake Ball in a six-run penultimate over and Fletcher did his job for the Outlaws in the final over.
Hales said: "T20 hundreds don't come around very often and to do it in front of a home crowd was really special.
"It has been such a weird feeling to be playing in front of empty seats and I really struggled with that at times last year.
"I wasn't my usual self today. I didn't play in the usual way. It was not a particularly easy pitch to score on early on with very steep bounce and you needed 10 or 15 balls to get used to it."
Lancashire star Croft added: "The difference between the teams was Hales, really. In T20 you don't usually get someone staying around and he kept the board ticking all the way through, which was something we didn't have."
Elsewhere, England all-rounder Ben Stokes shrugged off treatment for a hurt finger to take 4-27 for Durham - after scoring 35 with the bat - as his side beat Birmingham Bears by 34 runs.
Stokes received his treatment while batting amid a 20-ball innings in which he hit three sixes and two fours as Durham posted 164-8 after being 9-2 - captain Cameron Bancroft top-scoring with 60 from 45 balls
Stokes then dismissed Sam Hain (2), Matthew Lamb (39), Michael Burgess (10) and Tim Bresnan (2) as the Bears were rolled for 130 inside 19 overs in reply.
Jordan Thompson made a T20 career-best 74 to take Yorkshire Vikings top of the North Group with an 82-run defeat of Northamptonshire Steelbacks at Emerald Headingley.
The in-form all-rounder hit seven sixes in his 35-ball innings as stand-in skipper Adam Lyth's team posted a daunting 224-3, supported by on-loan Mark Stoneman's 50 and Harry Brook's innings of 45 not out from 26 balls.
That was more than sufficient to defeat the Steelbacks, who mustered just 142 with Dom Bess collecting his own career-best short-form figures of 3-17 and also running out Adam Rossington with a direct hit from cover.
