County cricket: the race is on to qualify for the T20 Blast quarter-finals

Thomas Rew scored a half-century against Northamptonshire but Somerset need to keep winning to qualify for the last eight. Photograph: Paul Harding/ECB/Getty ImagesView image in fullscreenThomas Rew scored a half-century against Northamptonshire but Somerset need to keep winning to qualify for the last eight. Photograph: Paul Harding/ECB/Getty ImagesGuardian Sport NetworkVitality Blast T20County cricket: the race is on to qualify for the T20 Blast quarter-finalsNorthants, Notts and Hampshire are set fair while the reigning champions Somerset have not given up hope By the 99.94 Cricket BlogGary NaylorTue 7 Jul 2026 13.01 BSTLast modified on Tue 7 Jul 2026 13.02 BSTSharePrefer the Guardian on Google1. ‘After Rew. No, after Rew’You can’t win them all but there is a real art to timing your defeats. After booking their place in the T20 Blast knockout stage with eight straight wins, Northamptonshire lost for the first time in the competition. And, as is often the case after such a run, the defeat was a big one, going down by 105 runs at home to Somerset.We witnessed another instalment in the fraternal battle of Rew v Rew (which sounds a bit Dr Seuss). This time Thomas scored more runs than his elder brother James (57 v 30). With Jos Buttler, another product of the Somerset development programme, looking in the twilight of his international career, a slot could open up in England’s white-ball squad.The brothers’ more immediate concern is to win three straight matches and give Somerset a chance to defend the trophy on Finals Day. Nobody is writing them off just yet.2. Tariq the freak Gloucestershire, who are still somehow second in the Central and West Group, are proving the point above about timing defeats in the reverse. Three defeats in a row have jeopardised what looked like nailed-on progression.Their latest defeat came at Edgbaston, where they ran into Usman Tariq, who knocked over their top three en route to some old-school figures of 3-12 from his full allocation. A...