Signs of the Times at T20 Blast Finals Day?

Finals Day in the era of The Hundred has been a curious proposition. Thanks to that usurper’s seizure of the month of August, the knockout stages of England’s domestic T20 competition have been marooned at the end of the season; the group games and the context and tension they provide a distant, all-but-forgotten smudge on the horizon. Sandwiched between England T20I fixtures against South Africa, even the cricket cognoscenti could be forgiven for failing to notice the quarter-finals were happening. Even Finals Day is bookended by higher-profile national team matches on the days immediately preceding and following it. Thanks to this spectacularly awful scheduling, England players are absent and many of the competing counties’ key overseas signings have long since departed for home (or more lucrative T20 work elsewhere, given that Finals Day also coincides with the Caribbean Premier League). On the face of it, this should be a greatly diminished product from its heyday when the Blast was the country’s premier short format competition.

At times, events on the field bear this out. The first semi-final features a Lancashire side shorn of key players thanks to England call ups. Their county’s loss is their country’s gain, with Phil Salt’s incredible 141 not out off 60 balls and Jos Buttler’s 83 being the keystones to England becoming the first team to post a total over 300 against a full ICC member in a T20I at Old Trafford the night before. A strong Somerset batting performance sees Lancs set 183 to win. Despite the best efforts of stalwarts like Keaton Jennings and Liam Livingstone, the latter controversially dismissed on review despite an insufficient frame rate in the slow motion footage meaning it’s never actually clear whether or not his bat made contact with the ball before it hit pad, the lack of their major batting contributors means that Lancs never look like making a game of it. When Arav Shetty – batting at six and making his debut in a semi-final thanks to the number of starters away with England – is caught for 6 off 9 balls, the insanity of scheduling is brought into stark relief as Lancastrian hopes die.

In the back half of the Lancashire innings, menacing grey clouds make their inexorable approach towards Edgbaston like portents of impending doom. When Jack Blatherwick is caught off a ball that balloons up into those darkening skies, it brings George Balderson to the crease for his first T20 match of the season.  In a cynical move, he retires out to bring in Tom Hartley, with captain Jennings admitting after the match that this was done in the belief that Hartley was better placed to smash the 30-odd runs still required in the little time remaining. Sadly for Lancashire, his value as a ringer is immediately diminished when he is caught for a first-ball duck.

Michael Jones’ departure with three balls remaining, after all hope has gone but the rain has very much arrived, brings out Jimmy Anderson. There is a degree of sadness to watching this great of the game see out the death throes of a lost match in a competition no longer valued by the cricketing authorities. It feels like an era ending with a whimper. As the rain starts to really pour, Tom Aspinwall is caught off the penultimate ball and Somerset win by 23 runs.

But there is another way of looking at this.

Somerset, worthy winners of this first semi-final, do not have a Test ground or a Hundred franchise, and boast few England T20 internationals in their ranks (only Tom Banton was in the starting XI against South Africa the previous evening). Is this a sign that county cricket’s have-nots can topple their wealthier rivals?

Maybe not, if the second semi-final is anything to go by.

Perhaps concerned by the return of those grim clouds, Hampshire – whose home hosts plenty of international white ball cricket and the occasional Test, who have a Hundred franchise, and who have recently sold everything but the kitchen sink for enormous sums – have Northamptonshire five down within eight overs. In another sign of the end of an era approaching, Ravi Bopara, a stalwart of the English county circuit playing what might be his last professional game on UK soil before committing fully to the jet-setting life of a T20 journeyman, departs for just nine runs. The rain falls again, bringing the players off just after Northants have lost their sixth wicket with only 65 runs on the board after eight overs. After a short shower, a double rainbow emerges over Edgbaston. It seems to have been a sign of good fortune to come for Northants, who enjoy a record, 70-run seventh wicket partnership between Luke Procter and Justin Broad, which, after the target is adjusted down slightly through DLS, sets Hampshire 155 to win in 18 overs.

Chris Lynn celebrates his century

There are moments when it looks like Northants could defend that total. Economical bowling from Bopara and

excellent figures of 3-18 off four overs for Saif Zaib show that T20 can be a legitimate contest between bat and ball. But then Chris Lynn disabuses us all of that notion by hitting five consecutive sixes off Lloyd Pope in the 15^th over on his way to a 51-ball 108 and the title of first ever batter to score a Finals Day century. In so doing, he singlehandedly wins Hampshire the game with 14 balls to spare. It’s a breathtaking, dominant display and presumably makes those new Hampshire investors glad of every penny - and one assumes there were many of them - spent on his half-season contract.

It looks like the haves will take all the glory in the final as well. Despite the early loss of Lynn, Hampshire appear indomitable in the power play and pile on 83 runs in those six overs. An impressive half-century from James Vince and 26 useful runs from Benny Howell combine with minor cameos from a handful of other players to set Somerset a daunting 195 to win.

The first half of Somerset’s retort seems to confirm that money can indeed buy you success, as Hampshire have them 89-3 after 9.4 overs. But then, perhaps fired by a fervent desire to strike a blow for cricket’s downtrodden counties, Will Smeed takes off. His 94 off 58 deliveries consists of 14 fours and a solitary six. While he may be visibly enraged to be out on 94, ruing the missed opportunity to become the second Finals Day centurion, and while it may be Lewis Gregory, playing a captain’s innings under tremendous pressure, who smashes the winning runs (scoring 18 off 5 balls), Smeed is the undisputed hero of an historic victory. Securing the title at 195/4 with an over to spare, Somerset have pulled off the biggest-ever run chase in a Blast final in spectacular fashion.

There is clear hope, then, that smaller clubs can still compete in this format and provide scintillating entertainment in the process. It also clear that people want to see this. Edgbaston is packed. Fans of the participating counties have turned out in droves, making long journeys from across Somerset, Hampshire, Northamptonshire, and Lancashire. And they are an engaged crowd. Unlike the lifeless atmosphere of a Hundred game or the corporate night out feel of a group stage T20 at The Oval, the Finals Day crowd is here for the cricket. Miserly bowling spells and threatening deliveries are greeted with equal enthusiasm – well, almost equal – to sixes that land somewhere in Wolverhampton.

The pageantry around the games, a mixture of the ridiculous and the insane, is also great fun. The Mascot Derby, featuring representatives of 16 counties attempting to complete a lap of the outfield which has been strewn with inflatable obstacles, is made all the more surreal by the sight of David ‘Bumble’ Lloyd, looking much younger than his years, running around the field whilst commentating on proceedings. He makes it round much faster than the much younger BBC radio team. The Derby also provides a controversy on a par with Livingstone’s dismissal in the first semi, as the Hampshire Hawk blatantly false starts and leads throughout until a pang of conscience just before the finish line sees him allow Northamptonshire’s canine mascot to break the tape with him. Statements from the hawk seeking to explain the apparent cheating are then read out by the on-field announcers later in the afternoon, much to the amusement of those in the stands. The legendarily rowdy crowd in the Hollies stand is also in excellent form, dressed in an array of outlandish costumes and belting out bangers during mass karaoke before the final.

Next year, Finals Day will fall in mid-July. On the face of it, this is better scheduling in that it will bring the conclusion of the Blast much closer to the group stages and hopefully add context and a sense of build-up sorely lacking in the current set-up. The proximity of Finals Day to the group stages should hopefully also mean big-name international signings are also likelier to be available. However, the ECB have again sandwiched the end of the Blast between two England matches. Finals Day will be held on 18^th July 2026, with England playing ODIs against India at Sophia Gardens and Lord’s on the 16^th and 19^th July respectively. Nonetheless, this is one of the most enjoyable days in England’s cricketing calendar. One with something for the county purists and those looking to have a big, boozy day out. Pencil it in your diary now.