Knight shines as Warwickshire go top

A pair of Australians have already come blisteringly close to the first century in the Twenty20 Cup, and last night it was Nick Knight's turn to come, see and all but conquer, as Warwickshire made it two wins out of two in the Midlands/West/Wales division.

Like Andrew Symonds and Brad Hodge, Knight fell agonisingly short of his hundred, but his 89 from 58 balls was too much for Worcestershire. Using a strong crosswind to pepper the short boundaries, Knight chipped reverse-sweeps over the infield and flayed through the covers. Even his own team-mates couldn't keep pace - the next highest score was Ian Bell's 16. Kadeer Ali kept Worcestershire in the hunt with a stroke-filled 53, but Ian Carter was unstoppable, finishing with 3 for 19.
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If Knight took the individual honours, then the team award had to go to Somerset, who chased a barely-credible 194 for victory over Glamorgan, and still won with two whole overs to spare. They were catapulted towards the total by their captain, Jamie Cox, who opened the innings and clattered a six and 11 fours in his 21-ball 53. Somerset were 86 for 2 after five overs, and the Keiths Dutch and Parsons eased them to a stunningly simple seven-wicket victory.
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Down under the floodlights at Hove, with fire-eaters guiding their route, Sussex got their campaign up and running by beating fellow stragglers Middlesex by 41 runs. Matt Prior and Robin Martin-Jenkins were the mainstays for a decent total of 177 for 9, and Martin-Jenkins was back in action with the ball as well, picking up 4 for 20 in his four overs as Middlesex lost their way.
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That man Hodge was back in the runs at Chester-le-Street. Not content with his 97 in Leicestershire's previous match (and why would he be?), Hodge vented his spleen at Durham, cracking 64 in a total of 168 for 9, a target restricted by some impressive work in the field. Still, it was all too much for Durham, who were given a decent start by Nicky Peng and Phil Mustard, but then lost five wickets for 18 runs. Virender Sehwag, better known as an explosive batsman, detonated the tail with three wickets in three overs.
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And if anyone was in any doubt about how much this competition means to its competitors, then they needed only to witness Wasim Akram's bat-flinging tantrum after narrowly failing to beat Essex. Wasim had lamped 20 runs off 11 balls to resuscitate Hampshire's run-chase, but he and Simon Katich could not quite manage the 12 runs needed from Jon Dakin's final over. Essex's sub-par total of 155 for 6 had been built on a handy 49 from Andy Flower, and a promising 32 from Essex's 18-year-old star-in-the-making, Mark Pettini.
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