Maxwell, Lynn fire in T20 Blast as Buttler joins 10k club

Glenn Maxwell has helped power Birmingham Bears into England's T20 Blast quarterfinals as Chris Lynn's half-century also kept his Northamptonshire side in the hunt for a playoffs berth.

Maxwell's Bears clinched a spot in the final eight with two games to spare with a convincing 53-run win over rivals Worcestershire on Friday.

The Victorian blasted 44 from just 20 deliveries as Birmingham posted an imposing 4-228 before restricting the Rapids to 9-175 from their 20 overs.

The 34-year-old crunched five fours and three sixes, which included a seven-ball stretch of 26 runs where he hit Josh Tongue and Usama Mir for 6, 4, 0, 4, 4, 4, 4.

Maxwell's first six off Mir landed in the third tier of the Edgbaston's South Stand. He was eventually undone by New Zealander Mitchell Santner trying to clear the rope for a fourth time.

Dan Mousley starred with both bat and ball for Birmingham, hitting 51 after Maxwell departed with the score on 3-146 in the 14th over, and then taking 4-41 to rip through Worcestershire's top seven.

Birmingham are guaranteed to play in the last eight, with another victory in their last two regular season matches ensuring they host their quarterfinal.

Lynn notched his second half-century of the Blast season with his 62 from 35 firing Northants to an emphatic 92-run win over the North Group's bottom side Leicestershire.

The Queenslander, who has 329 runs striking at 131 this season including a century, put on 114 for the third wicket with Saif Zaib (55) to help the Steelbacks post 7-210.

The Foxes then crumbled to 118 all out despite 49 from new England Test squad member Rehan Ahmed.

Leicestershire's Aussie captain Peter Handscomb could only manage three runs opening the batting before being bowled by David Willey.

Northants sit sixth with one game to play but are only two points off second and their net run-rate of 0.404 is better than the four sides above them on the table.

South Group leaders Somerset secured a home quarterfinal with a tight four-wicket win over Gloucestershire at Taunton.

The hosts made a fine start as they reduced Gloucestershire to 3-9 but Grant Roelofsen's 52 and an unbeaten 42 from Jack Taylor helped the visitors post a competitive 8-186.

Will Smeed cracked 78 from 42 balls in reply but it took further contributions from Ben Green (37), Kasey Aldridge (32no) and Craig Overton (17no) to ensure the job was completed with three balls to spare.

Veteran Australian seamer Peter Siddle was absent from the Somerset side, as he has been for their past five matches after suffering a nasty wound to his bowling hand against Hampshire on June 7 which split his webbing and fractured his little finger.

"It is likely that the injury will rule him out for a significant period of time," said Jamie Thorpe, Somerset's Head of Science and Medicine.

Elsewhere, England white-ball captain Jos Buttler hit a 39-ball 83 with six sixes and eight fours as Lancashire beat Derbyshire by 27 runs in a rain-affected match at Old Trafford.

Buttler brought up 10,000 career T20 runs with his second boundary of the match, becoming only the ninth player to reach the milestone.

Liam Livingstone added an unbeaten 47 as Lancashire made 4-177 from their reduced allocation of 15 overs. Derbyshire could muster just 7-150 in response.

Australians in the County Championship 

Durham: Matthew Kuhnemann

Essex: Daniel Sams (T20s only)

Glamorgan: Marnus Labuschagne, Michael Neser, Peter Hatzoglou (T20s only), Mitchell Swepson

Gloucestershire: Marcus Harris

Hampshire: Nathan Ellis, Ben McDermott (both T20s only)

Kent: Wes Agar, Kane Richardson (T20s only)

Leicestershire: Peter Handscomb (April and May)

Northamptonshire: Chris Tremain (April 6-23), Jordan Buckinhgam (May 1-21), Sam Whiteman (until August), Chris Lynn (T20s), Andrew Tye (T20s)

Somerset: Peter Siddle (until July), Cameron Bancroft (until May 7)

Surrey: Sean Abbott (until July), Dan Worrall (UK passport)

Sussex: Nathan McAndrew (until July), Steve Smith (May 4-21)

Warwickshire: Glenn Maxwell (T20s only)

Yorkshire: Mickey Edwards (UK passport)