Surrey romped to their highest T20 score at the Kia Oval as they crushed Glamorgan by 81 runs to claim their fifth win in six Vitality Blast South Group games.

After opener Will Jacks top-scored with 69, Curran brothers Sam and Tom put their side in command as they combined to plunder 80 runs from the last 33 deliveries to see Surrey to 238 for five.

The under-strength visitors laboured to 157 for eight in reply but still harbour hopes of reaching the knockout stages of the competition.

Gloucestershire beat Hampshire by eight wickets on the Duckworth/Lewis method to maintain their slim hopes of reaching the knockout stages.

Ben Wells and Ben Charlesworth put on a brilliant third-wicket stand of 55 to see their side home after Ross Whiteley’s 41 off 25 balls had helped Hampshire to a respectable 158 for seven.

Eleven overs were then lost to rain before Wells and Charlesworth combined with 43 and 29 respectively to claim victory with five balls to spare.

Jordan Cox hit an unbeaten 82 off 44 deliveries as Kent Spitfires beat Sussex Sharks by six wickets to claim their fourth Vitality Blast win in a row.

Sussex looked set for an imposing total after Ravi Bopara’s 53 helped them reach 133 for three, but Michael Hogan’s four for 31 helped Kent peg back the hosts to 169 for seven.

Cox cranked up his response by hitting six fours and five sixes as the Spitfires successfully chased down the hosts’ total with eight balls to spare.

Birmingham Bears held on to top spot in the North group after a thrilling two-wicket victory over Durham at Seat Unique Riverside.

Hasan Ali took two for 15 off four overs as Durham struggled to an unconvincing total of 146 for five at the interval.

Alex Davies and Rob Yates fashioned an opening stand of 80 in response but the visitors stalled until Jacob Bethell smashed a six and a four in the final over to steer Birmingham over the line with three balls to spare.

Jos Buttler’s efforts proved in vain as Lancashire Lightning crashed to a seven-wicket defeat against Worcestershire Rapids at New Road.

Buttler rescued his side from 38 for four by smashing 74 off 54 balls but the Lightning were restricted to 164 for eight.

Pat Brown took three wickets and Mitchell Santner followed up with 49 off 27 balls as Worcestershire triumphed with 14 balls remaining.

Leicestershire remain rooted to the bottom of the North Group after falling to a 22-run defeat to Notts Outlaws at Trent Bridge.

Despite restricting the hosts to 165 for eight, Leicestershire struggled in response, with Wiaan Mulder scoring 38 but Steven Mullaney’s three wickets for 18 steered the Outlaws home.

Former Yorkshire T20 captain David Willey returned to haunt his former club as Northamptonshire Steelbacks won by 78 runs at Headingley.

Tom Taylor returned career-best figures of five for 28 as the visitors bowled Yorkshire out for just 102 inside 16 overs, having set a target of 181.

The Vitality Blast match between Surrey and Glamorgan at Sophia Gardens in Cardiff last Wednesday was a historic one for West Indian off-spinner, Sunil Narine.

While he ended up with relatively pedestrian figures of 1-34 off his four overs to help Surrey defend a mammoth 237, his dismissal of South African Colin Ingram for 11 was extremely significant.

With that dismissal, the 35-year-old Trinidadian became only the third man in history to reach 500 wickets in T20s, joining Afghanistan’s Rashid Khan, who has 555 and fellow Trinidadian, Dwayne Bravo, who leads the way by a mile with 615.

Narine made his T20 debut all the way back in 2011 when he represented Trinidad & Tobago against Hampshire in the Caribbean T20 at the Kensington Oval and has since gone on to represent a number of franchises in leagues across the globe, most notably helping the Kolkata Knight Riders to a pair of IPL titles in 2012 and 2014, taking over 20 wickets in each season.

In Surrey’s next game, which they also won, Narine was back to his best with figures of 3-12 in 2.5 overs.

In total, Narine has taken 503 wickets in 461 matches at an average of 21.01 including 12 four-wicket hauls and one five-wicket haul.

For the West Indies, Narine has taken 52 wickets in 51 matches at 21.25. His last T20 for the West Indies came against India at Providence in 2019.

Glamorgan are unlocking opportunities for the next generation of South Asian heritage cricketers and supporters.

The Welsh county has put a coaching network in place to give young talent from ethnic minority backgrounds the best chance of following former England Under-19 spinner Prem Sisodiya into the first team.

Off the field, prayer rooms are being actively discussed, while Glamorgan hope to attract supporters of South Asian descent by establishing no alcohol areas as well as providing halal and vegetarian food options.

“We’ve got a joint strategy which has set out its intention of being the most inclusive sport in Wales and to reflect the diversities of the communities we have here,” said Mark Frost, community and development manager for Glamorgan Cricket and Cricket Wales.

“We’ve set out that whether you are a club or at Sophia Gardens (Glamorgan’s home), being a more diverse set up is actually better for you.

“We’re not doing it for box-ticking or to be politically correct, we’re doing it because it’s good for you and we want it to happen.”

In Wales, 60 per cent of clubs now have girls or women’s team offers – “a massive step forward”, says Frost – and ‘Street Cricket’ initiatives have been set up in locations throughout the country where clubs do not exist.

Glamorgan’s drive to produce players of South Asian heritage has seen coaches such as former Derbyshire and Middlesex paceman Ali Bukhari, Mohsin Arif, Imran Hassan and Mojeid Ilyas joining their ‘Talent Pathway’ scheme.

“That old adage ‘if you can’t see it you can’t believe it’ is a really important one,” said Frost, speaking at a Glamorgan junior programme event held in Grangetown, one of Cardiff’s most diverse communities close to the city centre.

“The coaching pathway for Welsh age-group squads is helping to contribute from both the coaching and mentoring of players from an ethnic minority background.

“We’ve also spoken to community leaders and said we’re really taking the subject of prayer rooms seriously, as well as having a good variety of food options and areas of no alcohol or low alcohol so people can find an area that suits them.

“We know that T20 and The Hundred has attracted a younger audience, a family audience, and we’ve not yet got the right number of people coming forward from an ethnic minority background.

“But we’ve seen growth in the club game over the last eight years from five to 12 per cent of juniors and seniors from an ethnic minority background, which is more than representative of the population of Wales.”

Sisodiya attended the schools’ event at the Grange Pavilion, little more than a six hit from where he was born and grew up.

He said: “Being of Indian heritage and to say I’m from Grangetown is massive to me.

“When I was growing up we were always playing on the streets and in the park with a bat and ball.

“To see how a facility like this has developed is amazing. I think if I’d had this as a youngster it would have pushed me even more.

“When my dad came over from India he played for the Welsh Asians, but there’s a lot more integration now and it’s important Glamorgan spot that talent at an early age.”

Steve Smith fell 11 runs short of a century in what might be his final innings for Sussex as he was upstaged by teenager James Coles in the LV= Insurance County Championship clash against Glamorgan at Hove.

In his valedictory match for Sussex before linking up with Australia for the World Test Championship final and the Ashes, Smith was on course for a ton until he was rapped on the back pad by James Harris.

Umpire Martin Saggers raised his finger as Glamorgan celebrated, with Smith seeming aggrieved having been potentially outside the line – the option of reviewing is not available in the championship.

Having turned his overnight 68 not out into 89, Sussex were firmly in the ascendancy and 19-year-old Coles’ 138, his maiden first-class hundred, plus a belligerent 73 in 64 balls from Fynn Hudson-Prentice lifted the hosts to 481 all out and a considerable 358-run first-innings lead in the Division Two game.

Glamorgan, skittled for 123 on the opening day, fared better second time around as they went to stumps on 118 for one although they sit 240 behind overnight and face a battle just to make Sussex bat again.

In Division One, leaders Surrey were grateful for lower-order half-centuries from Sean Abbott and Gus Atkinson (55) as they seized the upper hand against Kent at the Kia Oval.

Surrey stumbled to 180 for six in response to the visitors’ 278 but free-flowing innings from Abbott (78 off 88 balls) and Atkinson (55 off 44 balls) lifted them to 362 all out.

Kent then lost three wickets in in the last three overs of the second day to fall from 78 for one to 80 for four at stumps – still trailing Surrey by four runs at stumps.

Northamptonshire’s batting woes continued as they were shot out for 56 at Hampshire, with Keith Barker taking four for 13 and two wickets each for Mohammad Abbas and Ian Holland.

After being asked to follow-on, Northamptonshire, who have been rolled for 72 and 63 this season, closed on 50 for two to trail by 261 after Hampshire were all out for 367 in the morning at the Ageas Bowl.

Middlesex are in strife against Somerset at Lord’s after being bowled out for 175, with Matt Henry taking five for 45 and Lewis Gregory and Jack Leach collecting a couple of wickets apiece.

After being asked to follow-on, Middlesex ended the day on 81 for one to sit 148 behind. Somerset earlier converted their 325 for six into 404.

Matthew Montgomery capitalised on Ben Duckett’s absence with an unbeaten 130 to underpin Nottinghamshire’s 326 for five against Essex at Trent Bridge.

The efforts of Montgomery, in the side because Duckett has been rested ahead of the international summer, plus knocks of 57 from Ben Slater and Joe Clarke helped Nottinghamshire establish a 28-run lead.

In Division Two, a day after 22 wickets fell at New Road, Leicestershire’s 180 all out – where Joe Leach took five for 41 – set Worcestershire 271 for victory. They closed on 26 for two.

Durham slow left-armer Ajaz Patel claimed five for 93 to reduce Gloucestershire to 255 for nine in response to their opponents’ 445 at Bristol.