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Cricket in England has never before seen a match decided by a final over eliminator, yet the final day of the Friends Life T20 saw both semi-finals being decided in such a manner.
The first had already witnessed drama and controversy. As the participants, yet again, had to cope with rain delays, Leicestershire, having posted a below-par 132 from 18 overs, were marginally ahead on the Duckworth-Lewis (DL) rain calculator used for determining a winner. The second innings needed to reach eight overs for there to be a result in the event of a longer rain delay, at which point Leicestershire were still ahead.
The umpires decided play could continue. Off the first ball of the ninth, Lancashire sneaked a single before Leicestershire’s long-standing and loyal wicket-keeper, Paul Nixon, gathered the throw and returned it innocuously to the bowler, MacDonald. Unfortunately, he had turned to remonstrate with a fielder and the ball, after hitting the stumps, trickled into no-man’s land, allowing Lancashire to scamper another single.
Whereupon the heavens opened up again forcing the teams from the field. At this point the scores were now tied according to M/s DL. The lengthy break saw frantic discussions between the umpires, captains and management from both sides. The run was allowed to stand.
Fortunately the rain subsided allowing play to resume with Lancashire set the task of scoring 27 runs from 17 balls, with Leicestershire having to rely on their occasional bowlers. At this point Lancashire ‘threw the bat around’ resulting in the loss of five quick wickets. With eight needed off two balls they ran a single off the penultimate ball leaving seven to win.
With Leicestershire seemingly home and dry, despite the steady drizzle, Wayne White, having previously excelled, bowled a full-toss allowing Cross to smash the ball into the stands and force an eliminator.
Both teams turned to their older left-arm spinners. Claude Henderson, bowling for Leicestershire, started poorly but finished with two dot-balls to set Jefferson and Cobb a target of 14. Despite having the best strike-rate in the league this season, Cobb allowed Jefferson, the tallest man currently playing professional cricket at 6’9”, to face first. The tactic worked perfectly with Jefferson striking two fours and a six to take Leicestershire to the final.
The second semi-final between Somerset and Hampshire was equally dramatic and rain-affected. Shahid Afridi was the mainstay of the Hampshire innings with a typically aggressive 80. In reaching 138 off 15.5 overs before the rain fell they looked well short of a competitive total.
With Trescothick starting well for Somerset scoring 28 they looked well set. They accumulated runs steadily and needed only five from their final over to achieve their target of 94 runs from 10 overs. However, Dominic Cork, bowling the final over, used all his years of experience to restrict them to four runs and force another eliminator.
Hampshire turned to the experience of Afridi with bat and ball. Unfortunately, he conceded 16 runs and was then only able to muster five in response against the bowling of Alfonso Thomas.
In the final, batting first, Leicestershire could only manage a modest score of 145, reliant again on the bat of Jefferson who struck 35. However, Somerset, packed with some of the biggest hitters in cricket, including T20 specialist and ‘bat-for-hire’ Kieron Pollard, were lured to their doom by bowlers relying on slow balls and off-cutters.
This included man-of-the-match, Josh Cobb. Known more for his batting (despite his golden duck in the semi), Cobb equalled the best-ever bowling performance in a final with four wickets for 22 runs, all to catches by substitute fielder Matt Boyce.
In the latter stages Somerset never looked like reaching the required total and lost by 18 runs, helping Leicestershire become the first team to win this title on three separate occasions, the others being in 2004 and 2006. For Somerset, this was a third final defeat in a row.
However, despite Cobb’s heroics, the ‘champagne moment’ came for their retiring wicket-keeper and former captain, Paul Nixon, who took a stunning, diving one-handed catch to remove the dangerous Pollard for only one run. For the 40-year-old Nixon this was the perfect send-off after several years of in-fighting at the club.
Both Leicestershire, who pocketted £200,000, and Somerset, now qualify for the Champions League T20 in India in September.
