T20 Blast

It's Quarter-Final's week, starting tonight, with Yorkshire v Sussex. Due to the Test Match tomorrow from Headingley, Yorkshire wont be able to take the advantage of a home tie, which they earned , instead the game will be at Chester le Street.
Unavailable players include Root, Malan & Bairstow, & almost a bigger miss will be Lockie Ferguson, who is out with covid. Sussex will have their star pace attack back, fresh from their success in the Hundred, with Jordan, Mills & Garton providing a test. It's also set to be the battle of the Rashid's, with Adil & Khan both set to play. Sussex start as strong favourites in my book.

Yorkshire 177-7
Sussex 178-5
Sussex beat Yorkshire by 5 wickets with 2 balls remaining

I've watched a fair bit of the Blast & most of Yorkshires matches, they are one of the best fielding sides in the comp, but not last night. Maybe pressure of a knockout game, but just terrible, dropped catches & miss-fields, cost the the match.

Tonight Notts host Hampshire. not the strongest Hampshire line-up I've seen. Currently 62-5 from 12 0vers, after bing put in by Notts.

^^ Somehow Notts managed to mess up chasing 126. They looked on course at 66-1 after 8 overs, but collapsed to 123 all out.

Expect more runs tonight as Somerset host Lancs. With an average score of 180 at Taunton, Somerset chose to chase. Dangerman Livingstone set off with a much higher total in mind, he had made 25 off 10 balls before Van de Merwe dissmissed him & then davis for a duck. Lancs reached 55-2 in the Powerplay. Both sides have players missing, but Somerset look stronger.

Lancashire 184-9
Somerset 185-3
A 7 wicket win for Somerset, as they chased down a decent score, which was kept in check by a key spell of bowling by Van der Merwe with 4-27, & De Lange with searing pace taking 3-41. With Banton & Hildreth both making 1 run each, there was no panic, as first Smeed, & then Lammonby formed partnerships with Abell, as the target was knocked off with 11 balls remaining. It can't be too long before any of these 3 batsmen follow Banton & gain England caps in some form of cricket. Abell has matured, & is an impressive character, he's good enough to play Test cricket.

In the last Quarter-Final on Friday Kent beat the Bears by 21 runs, which means it will be an al Southern Finals Day for the first time.

It's T20 Finals Day, with the weather set fair. First Semi, sees Somerset take on Hampshire, who made a late run to get to this stage of the comp. Somerset won the toss & elected to field. They had the innings in check for most of the way, but the key moment was top scorer Wetherley was dismissed when he was going well, but was given a reprieve as Somerset's De Lange had drifted out of the circle, a no ball was called, the free-hit went for a boundary, & when the same man was called on to bowl all his overs at the death he took some tap, Wetherley finished with 71.A target of 150 looks 10 or 15 runs above a par score.

Somerset have pulled off a miracle & somehow got home !!

(18-09-2021 13:53 )Boomerangutangangbang Wrote:  Somerset have pulled off a miracle & somehow got home !!

The bowling was such that a village team would have been embarrassed by serving up much of it though!! huge inquest in the Hampshire dressing room.