T20 Blast 2024 BEARS vs DERBS North Group Match Report 14 July 2024

Birmingham Bears 198 for 2 (Mousley 60*, Moeen 59, Hain 52*) batting Derbyshire 154 (Briggs 3-24) with 44 runs

Birmingham Bears booked a home quarter-final in the Vitality Blast, comfortably beating Derbyshire Falcons by 44 points at Edgbaston.

A modest start (21 from four overs) turned into a disheartening total from which the Falcons fell just short at 154 all out from 19.2 overs. Nobody passed 30 as spinners Danny Briggs and Jake Lintott dismantled the top and middle orders to take their combined T20 wicket tally to 379.

The Bears can now look forward to a tie at home in the last 16, where they will look to avoid the choke that has plagued them at that stage for the past three seasons. Despite this damaging defeat, the Falcons can still qualify but are under pressure to win their final two games, starting at Worcester next Thursday.

Put into the game, the Bears made a poor start, taking just seven runs from the first 15 balls. Mohammad Amir produced a beauty to have Alex Davies caught behind and the Bears hit just four fours in the powerplay, which they finished 41 for 1.

Moeen exploded in aggression. After going for 25 off 23 balls, he cruised to 50 in just five more with four sixes in five balls by Samit Patel and Alex Thomson. Pat Brown unfurled a smart, slower ball behind which Moeen scored, but the momentum created by the captain was emphatically picked up by Mousley and Hain in an unbroken partnership of 111 in 62 balls.

Mousley reached his eighth half-century in T20s and his second in successive games, off 39 balls. Hain followed up with his 33rd T20 half-century off 29 balls, one of which was smashed for the most glorious six in T20 history at extra cover off Amir.

The Falcons enjoyed a strong powerplay, reaching 60 for 1 for the loss of Luis Reece, who skied George Garton to mid-on, but then scoreboard pressure took its toll.

David Lloyd lifted the first ball for a six but was deceived and bowled by Briggs’ first ball. Lintott also struck in his first over when Aneurin Donald looked for the crowd at long-on but only found Mousley just inside the boundary.

Wayne Madsen and Patel have the knack of tackling the biggest chases, but when they perished in the space of four balls, the Falcons’ challenge was over. Patel hit three sixes en route to 28 but then cut Lintott to extra cover. Hain collected that catch and was there again when Madsen lifted a drive to Briggs.

The potentially destructive Ross Whiteley fell to Briggs and the Falcons fell further and further behind the required rate in a match unlikely to feature on the back pages of tomorrow’s papers.