Report: Bears v Steelbacks, Vitality Blast
A scintillating innings from Jacob Bethell hoisted Birmingham Bears to a thumping 90-run Vitality Blast victory over Northants Steelbacks at Edgbaston.
Twenty-year-old Bethell smashed an unbeaten 56 from just 16 balls, including a 15-ball half-century, the quickest for the Bears in the Blast, to lift his side to 219 for four.
Ed Barnard (48, 29), Dan Mousley (43, 26) and Alex Davies (36, 29) had already laid the foundation for a solid total but Bethell turned solid into spectacular with a furious onslaught of seven sixes, including four from Ben Sanderson in the last over.
Steelbacks then meandered to 129 for nine (Bethell adding two for 18 to his batting heroics) to suffer their eighth successive T20 defeat to the Bears. The only negative of the night for the home side was an injury to fast bowler Richard Gleeson who limped off the field, apparently with a hamstring injury, after delivering his seventh ball.
After the Bears chose to bat, Barnard hungrily seized his first T20 opportunity of the season. He dominated an opening stand of 80 in 52 balls with skipper Davies who was content to play a supporting role.
Ravi Bopara did most to shackle the batters with a canny spell of 4-0-21-2 which included the breakthrough wicket when Barnard slogged to deep mid-wicket. Davies chipped to mid-wicket and Hain hammered a return catch to Bopara but Mousley batted with typical brio before slog-sweeping Freddie Heldreich to Sikandar Raza on the mid-wicket fence.
That brought in Barbados-born Bethell who thrilled the crowd by thundering to 50 in just 15 minutes. The last five overs of the innings yielded 92 runs.
Northants looked shell-shocked and the effects of Bethell’s plundering were evident from the visitors’ early batting. Under massive scoreboard pressure, the top order went for broke and paid the price.
David Willey was superbly caught by Barnard at extra cover off Gleeson who was then chipped tamely to mid on by George Bartlett. Gleeson left the field with figures of 1.1-0-2-2 but the Bears charged on towards victory regardless. When Matt Breetzke skied a heave at Craig Miles, it was 20 for three and the Steelbacks had consumed 16 balls and three wickets without erasing what the Bears had scored in the 20th over.
Things went from bad to worse for the Steelbacks in the sixth over when George Garton removed Raza and Saif Zaib, caught at extra cover and slip respectively, from successive balls. Bethell’s happy day continued when Miles took a superb catch inches inside the mid-wicket rope to dismiss Lewis McManus.
Still there was Bopara and the former England batter has pulled off some highly unlikely rescue acts for his teams over the years, but finding 151 from 67 balls with four wickets intact was beyond even his considerable skills. With his departure, stumped off Jake Lintott, the sun set on the Steelbacks’ hopes of a fightback just as a glorious sunset, a divine fusion of pinks, purples and oranges, settled upon the sylvan Birmingham skyline.
Bears all-rounder Jacob Bethell said: “That was a definite confidence-booster for us, It was a clinical performance with the bat and then to take early wickets and continue to take them is the sort of performance we are looking for. It was a pretty convincing victory.
“Barny batted really well. He has been waiting for his opportunity and training hard and doing all the right things and today his opportunity came and he took it which is testament to him.
“We had a great power-play but then they pegged us back but luckily I was able to get a few away to propel us over that 200. I wasn’t really looking at the scoreboard too much, I was just trying to watch the ball and hit it.
“I put in a lot of work over the winter which I spent over here rather than going away and I think that work is paying off. Practice creates confidence and I am playing with a lot of confidence at the minute because of the work I have done behind the scenes. Practice goes a long way.”
Buy your Vitality Blast tickets in advance & save
Tickets for this summer’s Vitality Blast are on sale now and fans can save up to £6 when purchased in advance.
Tickets available from just £22, while under 16s are only £5. And make further savings when you book as a group of six or more.
