County cricket: Nottinghamshire and Somerset lead the way in T20 Blast

Four consecutive wins in June have catapulted Nottinghamshire to the top of the North Group. Derbyshire and Durham were their victims this week.

Samit Patel continues to defy conventional descriptors of a professional sportsperson. A survivor of the first season of Twenty20 cricket in 2003, he is still batting in the top five, bowling in the powerplays, fielding the ball if it comes near and winning player of the match awards. I don’t know if he passed the pre-season bleep test but, it has to be said, it seems unlikely.

Not that it matters if Nottinghamshire keep winning and Samit plays his part. He is 38 now but, like Teddy Sheringham – who was playing in the Premier League at 40 – he did not have much pace to lose. When Samit does pack it in, English cricket will be a less colourful, more homogeneous place – until then, we should enjoy a unique cricketer who has been one of the most watchable and respected in the last two decades.

Birmingham Bears are second to Nottinghamshire, having arrested a run of three defeats with a come-from-behind win over Northamptonshire at Edgbaston.

In a week when the heat of summer has finally arrived, scores reflected harder, quicker pitches and sleeker outfields, so the visitors must have fancied their chances after conceding just 11 boundaries, bowling out the home side for 137. But Moeen Ali had three international spinners (Glenn Maxwell and Danny Briggs supplementing his own tweakers) at his disposal and they took a combined five for 56 off their full complement of 12 overs as Northants lost wickets at regular intervals, finishing 31 runs short of their target.

Moeen will be unexpectedly otherwise engaged in the immediate future, but the Bears look well positioned to have a run at