Follow Vitality Blast 2025 on 8th June with live streaming of all matches and comprehensive reports covering scores, highlights, and key player performances.
Vitality Blast 2025, North Group Matches – Cricket Predictions – June 8
Lancashire vs Northamptonshire, Vitality Blast
Vitality Blast: Lancashire Lightning 151-6 v Northamptonshire Steelbacks
Lancashire 4 points, Northamptonshire 0 points
Northamptonshire Steelbacks maintained their 100% start in this year’s Vitality Blast when they defeated Lancashire Lightning by 24 runs at Emirates Old Trafford to make it five wins in succession.
Having posted 180 for six, in which skipper David Willey top-scored with 37, the visitors produced a determined display in the field, George Scrimshaw leading the way with career-best T20 figures of four for 19 from his four overs, as Lancashire ended on 156 for nine.
The prize wicket of Liam Livingstone, who was playing his first match after his IPL triumph, was claimed by Lloyd Pope whop finished with two for 27. Having won their first three T20 games, Lancashire have now lost two on the trot, both at home
Both the batsmen to depart in Lancashire’s powerplay were caught at mid-on off James Anderson, whose first three overs cost 21 runs. Matthew Breetzke was pouched by Chris Green for nine and Ricardo Vasconcelos by Ashton Turner for a 15-ball 32.
But the four fours and two sixes hit by Vascocelos reflected the pace of scoring at the other end and the Steelbacks were 57 for two after six overs. Lancashire enjoyed another success two overs later when Justin Broad was caught behind off Jack Blatherwick for 13 which left the visitors on 70 for three, leaving Willey and Ravi Bopara with the task of rebuilding the innings while maintaining an aggressive approach.
The experienced duo managed this task with a stand of 60 in seven overs before both were dismissed in the space of six balls. Having made 28, Bopara lofted Anderson to Blatherwick on the cover boundary and Willey was caught by Jennings at cover off Livingstone for 37.
Undaunted by these reverses, Saif Zaib and Lewis McManus put on 42 in 24 balls before McManus fell to Livingstone in the final over for an enterprising 28. At the same time, the Steelbacks’ final total of 180 for six seemed about par on a good wicket.
Livingstone finished with two for 35 from four overs although Wells was also impressive, conceding 23 runs from his four wicketless overs. Anderson took three for 31 but, rather puzzlingly, the England slow-left-armer, Tom Hartley, was not required to bowl.
The in-form Ben Sanderson and his captain, Willey, ensured Lancashire’s reply got off to a poor start by dismissing Wells and Jennings inside the first 13 balls of the innings and although Matty Hurst and Livingston hit four sixes in seven balls, Northamptonshire struck another blow in the powerplay when Hurst skied Luke Procter’s first ball to long stop was caught for 17, George Scrimshaw running across from third man to take the catch.
The Australian leg-spinner Pope took the vital wicket of Livingstone in the next over when the IPL winner with Royal Challengers Bangalore pulled him straight to Vasconcelos at midwicket and departed for 18.
Pope took his second wicket when he had Ashton Turner caught down the leg side by McManus for 23 and with seven overs left to be bowled Lancashire needed another 76 runs to win. That task immediately became harder when Green skied Scrimshaw to Willey on 15.
Michael Jones tried to salvage the game but he fell to Scrimshaw for 32 when he was caught by Breetzke who took three catches in the innings and also dropped two. With the outcome of the game all but certain, the final few overs of the match were anti-climactic.
Essex vs Middlesex, Vitality Blast
By Alex Smith, ECB Reporters Network supported by Rothesay
Vitality Blast Men – Essex vs Middlesex at the Ambassador Cruise Line Ground, Chelmsford
Essex 156 lost to Middlesex 159/4 by six wickets
Stephen Eskinazi put pointless Essex to the sword as his 72 gave Middlesex their first Men’s Vitality Blast victory of the season.
The hosts had lost six wickets in 29 balls to hinder their batting effort, although Simon Harmer’s T20 best for Essex – a brisk 41 – helped his side to a semi-respectable 156.
Eskinazi hammered his 23rd T20 fifty in style, but Ben Geddes’ six-fuelled 30 off 11 took the visitors to victory with 15 balls to spare, and kept Essex winless in the competition.
After being asked to bat, Adam Rossington gave the Eagles a flyer with 31 off 17 balls, built around five powerfully struck fours and a less convincing six down the ground.
With three balls left of the powerplay, Essex were on 60 and cruising but by the end of the fielding restrictions, they were two down and 29 balls later, another four batters had been and gone.
The wickets were shared around during the collapse.
Tom Helm had Rossington splicing to cover and two balls later, Michael Pepper had feathered behind down the legside. The fast bowler would also see off Shane Snater and Harmer in the final over to return four for 32, an upgrade on his back-to-back three-fors.
Josh Little brilliantly bounced out Dean Elgar, while Jack Davies added the stumpings of Paul Walter and Charlie Allison to his two catches, before Matt Critchley reversed to short fine leg.
But Harmer rallied the innings and got Essex in the vicinity of par – but still under.
The skipper took no risks but quickly accumulated much-needed runs, as he found Luc Benkenstein to stick around for 43 runs.
His six over Noah Cornwall’s head was extremely clean, while his final over pull over the ropes couldn’t have been middled better. He fell to the last ball of the innings but his 41 off 28 was invaluable to Essex reaching 156.
Eskinazi and Kane Williamson put the chase on control with the former providing the explosives and the New Zealander the anchor in a 97-run salvo for the first wicket. As Essex continued their run of not taking a powerplay wicket.
Everything looked in hand with Eskinazi’s middle of the bat constantly vibrating as he passed a 35-ball half-century, but a mini-wobble, which included three wickets falling in nine balls, gave Essex hope.
Williamson top-edged a sweep to the 45, Eskinazi mistimed a pull to the deep, Leus du Plooy was bowled by a Harmer beauty in a wicket maiden, and Davies picked out midwicket.
But that dream of a turnaround evaporated when Ben Geddes deposited Walter in or over the Felsted Stand three balls in a row to take Middlesex within nine runs.
Ryan Higgins continued the runs of sixes at the start of the following over before a four two balls later secured the victory.
Kent vs Hampshire, Vitality Blast
Kent Spitfires 181 for 2 (4pts), beat the Hampshire Hawks, 177 for seven (0pts) by 8wickets.
The Kent Spitfires have handed the Hampshire Hawks their first defeat of the Vitality Blast season, pummelling them by eight wickets at Canterbury.
The Hawks had the misfortune to run into a fully armed and operational Zak Crawley: the England man hit 75 off 43 balls, including three sixes and he enjoyed a stand of 110 with Daniel Bell-Drummond, who made 61 from 40.
Earlier Joe Weatherley hit an unbeaten 63 as Hampshire recovered from 63 for 4 to post 177 for seven, with Tom Rogers posting Kent’s best figures with 3 for 33, but as soon as Kent took 22 from the 11th over they looked favourites and they coasted home with an over to spare.
Hampshire chose to bat but lost James Vince in the second over, caught by Wes Agar off Tom Rogers for six after a miscue.
Fred Klaassen then got Tom Prest for a four-ball duck, Crawley taking a dolly at mid-wicket and Toby Albert then pulled Rogers straight to Tawanda Muyeye at square leg for 18.
Dewald Brevis hit the first six when he drove Grant Stewart back over his head and he hit two more before holing out to Parkinson and getting caught by Rogers on the long on boundary for 24.
Weatherley and James Fuller shifted the momentum by putting on 49 for the next wicket and although the latter was lbw to Joe Denly at the end of the 13th, Benny Howell kept up the pressure.
Kent could have run out either batter in the 16th but somehow got neither and Weatherley pulled Stewart for four to pass fifty, before a couple of late wickets slowed the scoring rate: Agar got Howell for 23 at the end of the 19th, caught on the boundary by Jack Leaning, and Rogers had Chris Wood caught and bowled for nought in the final over.
Kent’s reply started relatively slowly and they lost Tawanda Muyeye for 20 in the fifth over, when he skied Wood to Vince. It was 45 for one after the powerplay and 75 for one at halfway, but at this point Crawley decided to accelerate, hitting Turner for a six into the Nackington Road hedge, then another onto a top floor balcony on the Old Dover Road. He followed that with two fours and creamed Scott Currie through backward point to reach his half-century.
Bell-Drummond passed the same milestone with a towering six over cow corner over Wood, but he finally went in the same over, the 15th, to a stunning catch by Bjorn Fortuin, who cover 25 yards before somehow clinging on.
The Spitfires still needed 16 from the last two, but Crawley dropped to one knee and swept Currie’s first two balls for six and four, leaving Denly to seal the win with a violent six over cow corner off the final ball of the over.
Yorkshire vs Leicestershire, Vitality Blast
Vitality Blast, Yorkshire 213-7 v Leicestershire Foxes 107 all out. Yorkshire win by 106 runs.
Yorkshire 4 points, Leicestershire 0 points
By Graham Hardcastle, ECB Reporters Network supported by Rothesay
Captain Dawid Malan became the fifth English batter to reach 10,000 career T20 runs at the start of a superb 88 which helped his Yorkshire side achieve their first Vitality Blast win of the season at the expense of Leicestershire Foxes at Headingley.
The former England left-hander hit five sixes in an opening 48-ball knock which helped his side, on the back of three North Group defeats, set the Foxes an imposing 214-target that was never threatened.
Yorkshire’s 213 for seven was underpinned by Malan and his second-wicket partner Will Luxton, whose 62 off 34 balls from number three represented a maiden career fifty in this format in his ninth match. They shared 132 inside 12 overs.
Leicestershire, in suffering their second defeat in five, were bowled out for 107 inside 17 overs and suffered their heaviest ever runs defeat in this format – by 106 runs. Leg-spinner Jafer Chohan claimed four for 27.
Malan, aged 37, was playing his 365th career T20 game and followed Jos Buttler, Alex Hales, Jason Roy and James Vince to that milestone.
Yorkshire – inserted following a 30-minute rain delay – made an excellent start, reaching 65 for one after six overs of powerplay, including three successive fours for Adam Lyth against Logan van Beek and a big six over midwicket apiece for Malan and Luxton.
Malan reached the 10,000-mark in style by hoisting Matt Salisbury’s seam over cover to pass the two runs he needed at the start of this fixture.
Lyth feathered Roman Walker’s seam behind, leaving the White Rose at 30 for one in the fourth over, before Malan and Luxton motored.
They took the score to 101 after 10 overs and beyond.
Malan reached his fifty off 30 balls shortly afterwards before both he and Luxton hoisted sixes off Tom Scriven’s seam in the 13th over to notch a century stand.
Luxton’s fifty was achieved off 24 balls, and he hit four sixes in all.
Both then fell caught, leaving Yorkshire 177 for three at the start of the 17th over, Luxton to the left-arm spin of Liam Trevaskis and Malan to Walker.
Having struggled for early control on a ground which time after time produces big totals, Leicestershire struck six times in the last 5.1 overs even though 51 runs were added in that time.
Van Beek finished with three expensive wickets, while Dom Bess clobbered a late 18.
The Foxes’ chase then failed to get off the ground, reduced to 20 for two at the start of the fifth over. New Zealander Will O’Rourke and fellow pacer Matt Milnes got Rishi Patel and Louis Kimber caught in the ring.
Not even the presence of former Yorkshire captain Shan Masood in the visiting line-up could alter the course of this fixture.
Malan brought the part-time off-spin of Lyth on immediately after the powerplay, and Masood knew he had to take a risk with the run-rate spiralling.
He could only loft his first ball down long-on’s throat, and at 34 for three it was all but game over.
Wickets continued to fall as Leicestershire’s task reached the impossible stage.
Chohan struck twice in two balls on two occasions with his leg-spin, while Bess’s off-spin also accounted for two wickets.
Chohan had Logan van Beek stumped for an innings-high 26.
Sussex vs Glamorgan, Vitality Blast
ECB Reporters’ Network supported by Rothesay at Hove
Sussex Sharks 195-4 (Coles 75 not out, Alsop 50) beat Glamorgan117 (Tribe 34,McAndrew 5-19) by 78 runs.
Sussex Sharks made it three wins out of four in the Vitality Blast when they outplayed Glamorgan at Hove, winning by 78 runs with 4.4 overs to spare.
First James Coles led the way with the bat, with an unbeaten 75, before Nathan McAndrew took over with the ball, with figures of five for 19 from his four overs. At one point Glamorgan, who had also won two out of three before this fixture, were 49 for seven and appeared to be heading for an even heavier defeat.
They needed a challenging 196 at 9.8 runs an over and made a bright start but then, in the fourth over, their captain Kiran Carson hit Ollie Robinson tamely to Coles at midwicket.
In the next over Ben Kellaway was caught on the deep midwicket boundary by Tom Clark off McAndrew and the Australian put himself on a hat-trick when Colin Ingram gloved his next delivery to the keeper.
That made it 40 for three in the fifth over. And worse was to come for the visiting side. In the seventh over Will Smale, attempting to swing a low full toss from Coles to the boundary, lost his off stump instead. Then McAndrew had Chris Cooke caught behind and placed himself on another hat-rick when he dismissed Dan Douthwaite (bowled middle stump) and Timm van der Gugten (caught at backward-point). Again, McAndrew missed out on his hat-trick but he had taken five wickets for seven runs in two overs and Glamorgan, at 49 for seven after eight overs, were in disarray.
Asa Tribe gave their innings a measure of respectability with a 21-ball 34, with a four and three sixes, before he was brilliantly caught by the running and diving Daniel Hughes at short third man and Tymal Mills wrapped it up with two in two.
Sussex, who chose to bat first, were again indebted to the in-form Coles, who powered his way to his 75 from just 43 deliveries, with seven fours and three sixes. It was his second fifty of the campaign, and his fourth in the Vitality Blast. But Tom Alsop was a close second best, with 50 from 27, with five sixes, as the pair struck 90 runs from nine overs for the fourth wicket, with 52 runs coming from the last three overs.
Glamorgan had hoped for something better after dismissing the dangerous Hughes for just a single in the second over. Harrison Ward, after a quiet three matches, made his first meaningful contribution of the season, with a bludgeoning 38, with four fours and two sixes, as he added fifty for the second wicket with the dangerous John Simpson (26) from 28 balls.
But it was Coles who provided the vital acceleration, raising the hundred in the 13th over as he lofted Mason Crane over extra-cove for four before lifting his next delivery into the pavilion for six.
Glamorgan fielded six bowlers but Douthwaite, whose first two overs went for 32, was surprisingly given a third and that went for 16 as Coles drove him straight for six before Alsop hit him over long-on for another maximum.
Warwickshire vs Derbyshire, Vitality Blast
By Brian Halford, ECB Reporters Network supported by Rothesay
Warwickshire Bears, 199 for 6, beat Derbyshire Falcons, 141 all out, by 58 runs.
Warwickshire Bears completed back-to-back home wins with a 58-run victory over struggling Derbyshire Falcons at Edgbaston.
The Bears piled up 199 for six against the injury-hit Falcons. Opening pair Tom Latham (58, 42 balls) and Alex Davies (49, 29) provided a strong launchpad before the visitors reined the scoring in a little, Pat Brown taking three for 40.
It was more than enough though as the Falcons replied with 141 all out in 19.1 overs. There was no way back from the dire start of 29 for four and their fourth defeat in four duly followed. Ross Whiteley hit 50 (37) and Wayne Madsen 46 (32) but Hasan Ali added four late wickets, including a hat-trick, to his two early ones to finish with six for 23 while George Garton equalled the T20 world record of five catches by a non-wicketkeeper.
With Samit Patel failing a fitness test on a calf injury, the Falcons’ squad was at full stretch. Fynn Hudson-Prentice came into the side, signed on a four-game loan from Sussex, but Warwickshire made a flying start after they were put in.
Davies and Latham followed their opening stand of 103 against Yorkshire on Friday with 79 (from 54 balls). Davies hit three sixes and five fours before departing clearly unhappy at being deemed to have gloved an attempted pull at Brown to wicketkeeper Aneurin Donald.
The Falcons fought back well as former Bears spinner Alex Thomson bowled Dan Mousley through a sweep. Latham was adroitly caught by David Lloyd on the long leg boundary, when the fielder threw the ball up to ensure he didn’t carry it over the rope, then stepped forward to catch it again.
Sam Hain swung Hudson-Prentice into the Hollies Stand then tried to do so again but didn’t clear the fielder. Brown cleaned up Ed Barnard and Kai Smith with successive deliveries before important late impetus came from Moeen Ali (33 not out, 17) and Garton who took 12 from the three balls he faced.
Garton was then heavily involved at the Falcons plummeted to 28 for four after four overs. He took a return catch to remove Caleb Jewell with the fifth ball of the innings and took stinging catches at cover from Aneurin Donald and David Lloyd off Barnard and Hasan Ali respectively. Martin Andersson became the third batter in 18 balls to pick out a fielder when he belted Hasan Ali to point.
The top order implosion left Madsen and Whiteley needing to retrench and, while they did, the required rate escalated…the Falcons entered the last ten overs needing 129. Madsen and Whiteley each hit three sixes but perished in pursuit of a fourth, caught in the deep. The latter perished at the start of Hasan Ali’s hat-trick – Whiteley caught at long off, Thomson at mid on and Ben Aitchson, bowled middle stump.
Warwickshire, with successive wins, are on a bit of a roll. Derbyshire’s campaign could not have started worse.
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Match Prediction – Essex v Middlesex
Match Prediction – Kent v Hampshire
Match Prediction – Sussex v Glamorgan
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