Aussies fire as Guptill hits 35-ball ton

New Zealand's Martin Guptill struck 102 from just 38 balls as Worcestershire thrashed Northamptonshire by nine wickets in England's T20 competition on Friday.

Guptill brought up three figures in just 35 balls, the second-fastest hundred in the competition's history behind the 34-ball ton scored by Australian Andrew Symonds in 2004, and the equal fourth-fastest in all T20s.

Scorecard: Worcestershire v Northamptonshire

Set a target of 188, visitors Worcestershire won with nearly seven overs to spare, with Joe Clarke making an unbeaten 61 off 33 balls and Aussie Travis Head finishing the match off with an unbeaten 20 from just nine balls.

Clarke and Guptill put on an opening stand of 162 in just 10 overs, with the Kiwi batsman dismissed with the first ball of the 11th over.

Guptill's knock was made even more impressive given he managed just three runs from his first seven balls, but he got into his stride and hit 12 fours and seven sixes in posting his fourth T20 hundred.

He got going in a Richard Gleeson over that cost 22 runs thanks to a flick over mid-wicket for six, two hits down the ground for four and a flick wide of short-fine leg.

South African Rory Kleinveldt replaced Gleeson and he too gave up an over costing 22 as Guptill went to fifty in 20 balls.

Scores: All the results from England's T20 competition

Guptill then swept left-arm spinner Graeme White to the man at deep-backward square leg, only for Seekkuge Prasanna to step over the boundary, before a second slog-sweep cleared deep mid-wicket.

Later, the Kiwi drove Prasanna over long-on for six and wide over long-off for four before Kyle Coetzer was straight driven for four and flicked over mid-wicket for six to bring up the batsman's century.

Elsewhere, Australia's T20 skipper Aaron Finch continued his blazing form, hitting an unbeaten 43 from 21 balls as Surrey thrashed Somerset at The Oval.

In a rain-reduced match, Finch and England star Jason Roy added 69 in just 3.4 overs to begin Surrey's run chase before Finch was joined by countryman Nic Maddinson (15no from eight balls) as his side chased down their victory target of 100 in just 6.4 overs.

Aussie allrounders Dan Christian (36no from 17 balls) and James Faulkner (23 from eight to go with 3-34) also showed good form as Christian's Notts beat Faulkner's Lancashire at Trent Bridge, while veteran Michael Klinger (77no from 50) was the match-winner for Gloucestershire over a Glamorgan side featuring Usman Khawaja (33 from 16) and Joe Burns (1 from 4).

Gloucestershire's Aussie quick AJ Tye also impressed, finishing with superb figures of 3-17.