THE BLAST: The famous Vitality Blast Finals Day will grace the Edgbaston pitch across all of Saturday – with a quartet of Southern division teams vying for the ultimate prize in English domestic T20s. We preview both semi-finals below, alongside our pick for the outright winner.
Essex v Hampshire – Saturday 11:00
Arguably the most surprising result from last week’s quarter-finals was Essex marching into Edgbaston and eliminating Northern division winners Warwickshire with just one delivery remaining. The result was made all the more spectacular by the fact that the visitors were effectively home and dry with 12 balls remaining – needing just 10 off the final two overs – only for Dominic Drakes to pick up two wickets and concede just 1 run in the 19th to force a dramatic finish. Simon Harmer’s side however held firm to win only their second game in six Vitality Blast matches – curiously, all six of those fixtures have been won by the team batting second.
Hampshire were sensational with the ball in their quarter-final matchup against Worcestershire, restricting their visitors to just 100 after 17.5 overs and at one point having them 29/6 at the start of the seventh over. The result was Hampshire’s sixth win in seven games and suggests that James Vince’s side have hit their best form at exactly the right time, having suffered a small group stage wobble in the middle of June. Speaking of Vince, the Hampshire skipper is now the runaway top run scorer in the Blast after amassing 657 runs at 65.70 throughout the tournament – The Ageas Bowl faithful will be hoping he can produce the goods again on Saturday.
Essex will be buoyed by those dramatic chases in each of their last two Blast fixtures, but it’s difficult to look past Hampshire here. James Vince’s men won both group games against Saturday’s opponents – including a massive 116-run win in early June – and look good value to reach the final. Backing Hampshire at 1.65 is the selection.
Somerset v Surrey – Saturday 14:30
Somerset have been the standout team in this year’s Vitality Blast after incredibly winning 12 of their 14 group stage games in the Southern division. Lewis Gregory’s men were however made to work hard in their quarter-final clash against Nottinghamshire in Taunton last Friday, with a sensational unbeaten partnership worth 96 between Gregory and Ben Green digging them out of a mid-innings hole, with the scoreboard at one stage reading 62/5 in the 10th over of their chase. The imperious top order of Tom Banton, Will Smeed and Tom Kohler-Cadmore uncharacteristically scored just 28 between them in that game, but Somerset fans will be pleased that their side can get over the line when the pressure is on even when their gun batsmen aren’t firing.
Surrey are a curious team to analyse. On paper, they have always been one of the favourites to win this year’s tournament and have a wealth of talent and experience to call upon, yet there are always doubts about their conviction in the latter stages of the Blast. Having said that, their 13-run win away at Lancashire last week was a brilliant result, and the Oval faithful will be glad to see Jason Roy (50) back in the team and meaning business. Laurie Evans also impressed with a blistering 70 off 41 balls, though the Brown Caps will undoubtedly be weakened by the news that Sunil Narine will be unavailable on Saturday after ruling himself out of contention.
Many cricket enthusiasts will argue that whoever wins this semi-final will make themselves favourites to win the final later in the day, and you can certainly see their point of view. This will likely be a tighter affair than the Saturday morning semi-final, but we’re backing this imperious Somerset team at 1.81 to reach what would be a well-deserved final.
Outright Winner Selection
Surrey are curiously the 3.15 favourites to win Saturday’s Finals Day, despite being the underdogs in their semi-final matchup against Somerset. As alluded to earlier, we anticipate the Brown Caps’ journey to come to an end at the hands of Lewis Gregory’s men, who we are also picking for our outright winner selection this year. Backing Somerset at 3.3 to lift the trophy on Saturday is the play.
Vitality Blast Outright Winner market
