Defending champions Somerset put Essex in at Taunton, but Dean Elgar’s 77 off 51 balls, including two sixes and eight fours, led the visitors to a competitive score of 193-6, well supported by Adam Rossington (32) and Jordan Cox (30).
Will Smeed (39 off 16) and Tom Banton (21) gave Somerset a racing start to their reply, but at 127-4 in the 14th over the game was in the balance.
Abell (55 off 36) and Lewis Gregory (44 off 20) put on 60 in five overs and although both fell to Paul Walter in the space of three balls, Somerset reached 197-6 off 19.1 overs.
Kent Spitfires enjoyed an ultimately comfortable 98-run win over Middlesex after Joe Denly’s 56 off 33 balls helped them to 205-8, despite Luke Hollman’s fine figures of 3-27.
Middlesex were all out for 107 in the 15th over as leg-spinner Parkinson dismissed Jack Davies, Tom Helm and Henry Brookes with the first three balls of his third over – two of them caught by Australian signing Xavier Bartlett, who also took his first wicket for the club, having Hollman caught for 23.
Surrey made exactly 200 against Glamorgan, with Smith hitting eight sixes in his innings, and then reduced the Welsh county to 30-3 in reply.
Australia’s Marnus Labuschagne scored 58 off 34 balls, with a six and eight fours, as he and Colin Ingram (50) added 99, but the loss of both in the 15th and 16th overs – with Ingram run out by Pope’s throw – left Glamorgan with too much to do.
Chris Cooke hammered three sixes in an unbeaten 40 off just 15 balls, but they finished on 181-7 to lose by 19 runs.
The night’s most nailbiting finish came at Hove where Sussex beat Gloucestershire by three wickets with a bye off the final ball of the game.
Captain Jack Taylor made 52 off 35 balls in a score of 167-8 by the visitors, with Tymal Mills taking 4-25 for Sussex.
The Sharks then fell to 29-3 and 53-4, but Fynn Hudson-Prentice (47) and John Simpson’s quickfire 36 left them needing 10 off the final over.
After Hudson-Prentice fell to the first ball of the 20th over, Jack Carson struck his second ball for six and they scraped home on 168-7.
