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Tanaka Title Defense Nixed As Foe Misses Weight
Birmingham Bears 194 for 5 (Moeen 103) beat Leicestershire 122 (Goldsworthy 35, Briggs 3-30, Bethell 2-5, Miles 2-12) by 72 runs
Birmingham Bears sealed top spot in the Vitality Blast North Group final table with a 72-run victory over Leicestershire Foxes at sultry Edgbaston.
The Bears booked a home quarter-final with Gloucestershire while the Foxes, who knew that a win would take them into the last eight, suffered the angst of being edged out of the qualification spots on the last day.
Moeen Ali's third T20 century - 103 (59 balls, nine sixes, seven fours) - lifted the Bears to 194 for 5, a tall total but less than appeared likely when they were at 99 without loss in the ninth over. The Foxes then reined in the scoring impressively led by the excellent Scott Currie (2 for 26) and Josh Hull (2 for 34).
The Foxes batters could not carry on the comeback, though, folding feebly to 122 all out in 16.4 overs. Only Lewis Goldsworthy offered any resistance as Craig Miles (2 for 12) struck important early blows before Danny Briggs (3 for 30) took his haul in this season's competition to 27 wickets at 12.81 apiece.
After choosing to bat, the Bears raced to 69 without loss after six overs. Moeen pulled the last two balls of the powerplay, from James Neesham, for six, passed 50 in 28 balls and celebrated with successive sixes off Goldsworthy.
The opening stand was worth 99 in 53 balls when Alex Davies was well held by Ben Mike at long on off Rehan Ahmed.
The Foxes' impressive fightback then took hold as three overs from Hull, Currie and Louis Kimber cost just 11 runs and brought the wickets of Dan Mousley, lbw trying to sweep a Hull yorker, and Chris Benjamin, caught at deep mid-wicket off Currie.
The innings was reignited by two sixes for Moeen off Rehan. He survived a missed stumping off Kimber on 92 to reach a 54-ball century but the Foxes dug deep as Mike conceded just four runs from the 18th over. Moeen holed out to Hull in the last over and after the first ten overs brought 109 runs the last ten yielded just 85.
The Foxes were still under some scoreboard pressure though and their chase was torpedoed by early wickets. Sol Budinger edged a slog at Zak Foulkes and Miles struck with his third and sixth balls when Rishi Patel and Rehan Ahmed chipped catches into the off-side infield. When Peter Handscomb sent a return catch to Briggs, the top four had all sunk in single figures.
Briggs removed Neesham with the assistance of Mousley at long off. If that catch was impressive, even more so was Ed Barnard's take, running back from extra cover, to oust Kimber off Jake Lintott. The insatiable Briggs collected his 281st T20 wicket when he knocked out Goldsworthy's off-stump and the Bears' romped through to the knockouts while the Foxes' decent campaign ended with a whimper.
