bbc
bbc|13-06-2025
Northamptonshire Steelbacks maintained their 100% start to the T20 Blast with a 10-run win over Birmingham Bears despite more heroics from paceman Hasan Ali.
Fresh from taking a hat-trick against Derbyshire on Sunday, Ali took three more wickets as the Steelbacks made 184-6 at Wantage Road, but a late batting collapse prevented the Bears from making it three successive victories.
Derbyshire's miserable campaign continued with a fifth defeat from their opening five games as they were beaten by an Ollie Robinson-inspired Durham.
At Trent Bridge, Nottinghamshire failed to recover from losing two wickets in the first over of their run chase against Yorkshire after Dawid Malan's quick-fire 58 for the visitors.
Looking for a sixth successive win to start their campaign, Matthew Breetzke (53) and Justin Broad (60) struck half-centuries to help the Steelbacks to a challenging 184-6 with skipper David Willey weighing in with 34 from 29 balls.
Hasan once again showed what a good operator he is in this format with 3-42 and the vital wicket of Broad to follow club-best figures of 6-28 against Derbyshire on Sunday.
The visitors looked in control of the run chase at 139-3, but home skipper David Willey brought himself back on to bowl and removed Dan Mousley for 68, before taking a diving catch in the deep to remove Ed Barnard off the bowling of Broad.
The Bears lost five wickets for 21 runs to subside to a 10-run defeat and Northamptonshire now have six wins from six, with seven victories in the North Group being enough to make it through to the quarter-finals last season.