T20 Blast round-up: Hampshire Hawks seal sixth straight victory

England’s Rew, back with his county after a tough Test debut against New Zealand, smashed a century off just 43 deliveries for Somerset as they beat Gloucestershire by 18 runs.

The left-hander eventually ended on an outstanding 116 not out off 56 balls, hitting 19 boundaries during his innings, as Somerset finished on 194-7.

The dismissal of captain Jack Taylor meant Gloucestershire were 97-4 at the end of the 11th over but a fifth-wicket partnership worth 55 between Liam Scott and Kamran Dhariwal gave them hope.

Daniel Sams broke that partnership in the 18th over, though, and Australian seamer Riley Meredith claimed two wickets in the following over to effectively take the game out of Gloucestershire’s reach.

Warwickshire opener Zen Malik narrowly missed out on a maiden T20 century as his side continued their recovery in the Blast, overcoming neighbours Worcestershire at Edgbaston by 59 runs.

The Bears, who began the tournament with five straight defeats – including a six-wicket loss at New Road – looked on course for an enormous total as Malik and in-form Beau Webster racked up a partnership of 177.

Malik took just 19 balls to reach 50 but, after he was caught at cover one short of his ton and Ben Allison’s pinpoint throw ran out Webster (79 from 44), the home side slid to 224 all out.

However, that proved more than enough, with Worcestershire losing wickets at regular intervals and, despite Adam Hose’s 49 from 35, they could only muster 165-7 in reply.