T20 Blast: Sam Curran stars for Surrey as Leicestershire and Glamorgan also win

Sam Curran produced a brilliant all-round display as Surrey beat Hampshire Hawks by 72 runs in the T20 Blast.

Curran hit 69 off 38 balls as Surrey piled up 228-4 and then took three wickets in the same over in his 5-30 as the Hawks were bowled out for 156.

Glamorgan beat Essex Eagles by six wickets in the other South Group game.

In North Group, Birmingham Bears suffered their first defeat as Scott Steel (72) led Leicestershire Foxes to a five-run win at Edgbaston.

Leicestershire made 152-9 and Ben Mike took 3-30 as the Bears ended on 147-9.

They remain second in the group, having missed out on the chance to leapfrog leaders Lancashire Lightning, with Leicestershire moving up two places to sixth.

Stunning strokeplay at the Oval

Hampshire opted to field first at the Kia Oval and earned an early reward as Liam Dawson bowled Jason Roy for one after he swung across the line.

But Will Jacks hit the spinner for six over extra cover to launch a dazzling partnership with Curran that raised 131 for the second wicket.

Both raced to 50 off 30 balls, with Curran reaching his with three sixes in the same Mason Crane over and then walking across his stumps in the next before flicking paceman James Fuller over long leg for an outrageous maximum.

The pair fell to Dawson (3-34) in the 13th over, but Sunil Narine took Surrey’s sixes tally in the innings to 16 with four of his own in his 23-ball half-century as he and Laurie Evans (25 not out) added 77 for the fourth wicket.

Hampshire’s chase saw a repeat of the start of the Surrey innings as Nick Gubbins went in Reece Topley’s opening over, with Kieron Pollard grabbing a brilliant catch at cover.

Ben McDermott and Tom Prest put on 55 in four overs, but Curran bowled Prest behind his legs for 23 and also had McDermott (29) and Aneurin Donald (0) caught in the following over on an evening briefly interrupted by an inflatable corgi floating across the outfield.

From 55-1, Hampshire found themselves on 60-5 and although James Fuller made 43 off 34 balls, Curran returned to have him lbw with a yorker after bowling Nathan Ellis for the best T20 figures of his career.

It meant Surrey made it three wins out of three to go top of South Group, above Middlesex and Somerset on net run-rate.

At Sophia Gardens, Glamorgan’s Australian pace bowlers Michael Neser (3-13) and Michael Hogan (3-21) undermined Essex’s hopes of a sizeable total as the 2019 winners mustered only 113-9.

Matt Critchley (38) and Paul Walter (20) produced the only partnership of note, adding 58 for the fourth wicket. Although Glamorgan lost David Lloyd for a duck in the first over of their chase, Sam Northeast’s run-a-ball 44 ensured their task remained fairly straightforward.

Marnus Labuschagne was run out by Aron Nijjar for 18 but Chris Cooke (17 not out) hit Daniel Sams for two sixes and a no-ball next up brought the game to an end with three overs to spare as Glamorgan moved up to fourth place.

Foxes prevail in tight finish

Scott Steel’s 72 for Leicestershire was his highest score in T20 cricket

The game between Birmingham Bears and Leicestershire ended in drama with home skipper Carlos Brathwaite needing six off the final ball to tie the game.

He had already hit two maximums in the over, but a yorker-length delivery outside off stump from Will Davis prevented him from making it three as the Foxes earned their second win of the competition.

Steel had earlier hit five sixes in his 51-ball innings, having been dropped in the deep on nine, before becoming one of three batters dismissed in the 18th over by spinner Jake Lintott (4-27).

Mike helped Steel add 60 for the sixth wicket in five overs before he was run out for 34 by a good throw from Chris Benjamin, while Warwickshire wicketkeeper Alex Davies took three catches and completed two stumpings in the innings.

Davies then held the Bears innings together with 43 off 31 balls before an attempted uppercut off Mike was caught at point.

Teenage spinner Rehan Ahmed weighed in with 3-36 as the home side declined to 117-9, with their hopes pinned on Brathwaite, who struck four sixes off Ben Stokes to win the 2016 World T20 final for West Indies.

But the task of scoring 23 off the last over proved beyond him.