Kagiso Rabada at least emerged with some credit as Essex hammered Kent by 50 runs in the Natwest Blast T20.
The young Proteas paceman, who took 2-31 and the Man of the Match award in his debut on Thursday, looked to be continuing his high-impact start to his month’s season in England when he had Jesse Ryder caught behind off the third ball of the innings, but Ravi Bopara (81) and Ashar Zaidi (54) led a devastating fightback to run up 204-4.
Rabada nonetheless had 13 dot balls, and conceded just 30 from his four overs. Kent were nowhere near up the challenge with the bat.
The 21-year-old may have mastered the conditions, but his stamina will be sorely tested. Kent now play Essex in Chelmsford in a county match from 3 July to 6 July and then they travel across the country to play Somerset in Taunton, in the deep south in a T20 match.
Kyle Abbott has been given a rough introduction to this campaign. His debut match against Durham was rained off, and the team arrived back home in Worcester only at 3.30am. They were still asleep when they were put in to bat by Derbyshire. That is the nature of the English fixture list.
It was only thanks to the tail that they reached a challenging total of 185-7, but Derbys, led by an unbeaten 59 from distant Saffa Wayne Madsen, nephew of Trevor Madsen and Henry Fotheringham, were untroubled in the chase to win by seven wickets. Abbott conceded 28 runs in his first two overs on his home debut but then held on to a fine low catch at long off to dismiss Hamish Rutherford (37).
Alviro Petersen was another Saffa on the wrong end of the scorecard as Lancashire went down by five runs in a low-scoring thriller in the Roses derby against Yorkshire.
The White Rose had offered a target of 141-7 in a match restricted to 18 overs a side, but the Red Roses never got into gear. Petersen went for 15 off 12 (1×6) as Yorkshire maintained their grip
Richard Levi is easing his way back after a shoulder-injury lay-off and contributed 14 off 17 as Northants reached 89-2 off seven overs, which gave them a Duckworth -Lewis win over Warwickshire.
Compiled by Mark Salter
