Buzzin Cricket

The front runners for Twenty20 cup glory appear to be Warwickshire. They beat Gloucestershire by eight wickets yesterday to almost guarantee their place in the quarter-final stage.  So far, they have won five times, tied once and had game that didn’t produce a result.

Warwickshire are the only side in this year’s competition that are yet to be beaten and they join Durham and Kent as group leaders at this stage. Jonathan Trott led the way for the Bears in their most recent victory with an unbeaten 50 as his side successfully chased down Gloucestershire’s total of 131. Jonathan Trott has a fantastic record in the Twenty20 cup – he has 999 runs to his name in this competition and will be looking to break the 1000 run barrier when Warwickshire take on Somerset at Edgbaston tomorrow night.

Last year’s winners Kent are also going strong and in terms of Twenty20 cricket betting, they are one of the favourites to win the trophy. They climbed to the top of the south division following a huge victory over neighbours Essex at Beckenham yesterday, a victory that was largely down to an explosive innings from Joe Denly. The opening batsmen hit 91 from just 57 balls as the home side made a massive 204-5 after being put into bat by Essex skipper Mark Pettini.

The total was far too large for Essex and despite some big hitting from Mark Pettini early in their innings, they were eventually dismissed for 123 – 81 runs short of their target.

Durham sit top of a very tight North Division after they managed to force a tie against Yorkshire at Headingley.  Chasing 160 to win, Durham needed 12 runs off the last three balls of the innings. After managing five off two of these balls, Gareth Breese smashed a six off the last ball to secure a thrilling tie between the two sides.

Earlier on, Michael Vaughan looked in good form as he hit 34 off just 24 balls and in the bowling department, it was a case of out-of-favour England players trying to force their way into the selectors reckoning. Steve Harmison took four wickets including that of Michael Vaughan, Liam Plunkett grab a couple of victims and Matthew Hoggard removed two Durham batsmen for Yorkshire. Something for Vaughan and co to consider maybe?

So, the Twenty20 cup is looking in good shape. There has been plenty of exciting matches and a number of impressive individual performances. Warwickshire, Kent and Durham lead the way at the moment, but as we all know, it can change very quickly in this form of the game.