Easy victories for Hampshire and Northants - Saturday 30th June

James Middlebrook and Con de Lange turned the pressure on the Welsh Dragon's batsman as they took three wickets apiece amid some very tight bowling in a good team performance. The Steelbacks restricted the Dragons to 110-9 from their twenty overs, with only Stewart Walters (34no) making it past 20 runs for the Dragons.

Northants opener, David Willey, blasted the Steelbacks out of the blocks hitting five boundaries in his 17 ball knock, making 24 runs. Captain Alex Wakeley continued the forward momentum with 54 not out off 40 balls before Kyle Coetzer (28 no) sealed the comprehensive victory with a huge six over midwicket. Northants reached their target off of just 13.1 overs to win by nine wickets to seal their first Friends Life t20 victory of 2012. However, the two points were not enough to take Northants off the bottom of the table with both teams looking unlikely of progressing passed the group stage. After the match Wakeley said, "There's been a few 50-50 moments in this T20 season and things could have been different for us. Hopefully we can finish well and get people talking about T20 in Northampton again."

The other game of the day saw Dimitri Mascarenhas lead Hampshire to an easy fourth straight Friends Life t20 win. The Surrey Lions top order collapsed dramatically during the first 15 balls of the game to a miserable 9-4 as Mascarenhas (2-12) and Liam Dawson (2-19) tore them apart. Ansari (38no) and Batty (23no) steadied the Surrey ship as they limped to 94-6. Despite Murali Kartik taking 3-16 the result was never in doubt after Hampshire openers Adams (17) and James Vince (25) started with 41 runs in the first six overs. Hampshire reached their target with 7 wickets and 4 overs to spare as they closed the gap to South Group leaders Sussex to three points.