T20 Finals Day: Big guns, powerhouses and underdogs

Four teams will converge on Edgbaston for the biggest occasion in the county cricket calendar on Saturday – T20 Blast Finals Day.

Three games spread out across 11 hours in front of 25,000 spectators in full party mode – what’s not to love?

And as ever with this great event, there are plenty of reasons to back each side’s chance of glory.

After two seasons of complete southern dominance, there is an even split of two teams apiece from the North and South Groups.

Big guns Lancashire Lightning are aiming for a return to the glory years, Hampshire Hawks and Somerset want to prove who is the pre-eminent modern T20 powerhouse, while Northamptonshire Steelbacks hope to demonstrate that the smaller counties on the circuit can also perform on the big occasion.

A great collective performance can trump a team of stars, or alternatively one player’s brilliance with bat or ball can take a match away from opponents single-handedly.

Lancashire are back at Finals Day for the first time in three years and a 10th time overall, but their success rate on the big stage is low.

Despite often arriving packed full of stellar names, they have only been successful once back in 2015.

Ironically, that was probably when they had a team least likely to win it, with Gavin Griffiths handed his T20 debut in the semi-final and playing key roles in both that game and the final.

Fast forward 10 years and the captain from 2015, Steven Croft, is now interim head coach.

He has tried to pick up the pieces in County Championship Division Two during a tumultuous campaign. In the T20 Blast, Lancashire have been far happier.

They won the North Group, and then thanks to a splendid 85 not out from Liam Livingstone, they saw off Kent in the quarter-final to book their spot at Edgbaston.

But in a manner similar to 2015, it is more a case of who is unable to play for the Red Rose than who can.

England’s T20 series with South Africa deprives them of Phil Salt, Jos Buttler, Luke Wood and Saqib Mahmood, while of their overseas players, Ashton Turner has been recalled by Cricket Australia and Chris Green is at the Caribbean Premier League.

The situation is far from ideal, as T20 skipper Keaton Jennings acknowledged, but they have to find a way to succeed.

“We’re still confident we can win two games on the day,” Croft told BBC Radio Lancashire.

“We usually get some good players plucked away from us, so we’re used to it. It’s frustrating, but it is what it is.

Somerset are well versed in Finals Day. This is their record-equalling 11th appearance in the semi-finals and their fifth consecutive year at the event.

Seven of those 11 appearances have ended with them in the final, yet they have only won the trophy twice in 2005 and 2023, finishing runners-up on five occasions, including painfully last year to neighbours Gloucestershire.

After coming through the group stage relatively unscathed with 11 out of 14 wins, in the quarter-final against Bears last weekend it looked like Somerset were on the verge of going out.

That was until the soon-to-depart Sean Dickson stepped up to the crease and hit an unbeaten 71 from 26 balls to send his side back to Edgbaston.

Somerset are without some big names in Birmingham. The seam-bowling duo of New Zealander Matt Henry and Australia’s Riley Meredith – the latter the top wicket-taker in the competition – have both been recalled by their countries in recent weeks, while batter Tom Banton also remains unavailable because of being away with England.

Still, head coach Jason Kerr said the side are “incredibly confident”.

“We saw that in the quarter-final we never know when we’re beaten,” Kerr told BBC Radio Somerset.

After Leicestershire and Hampshire, Northants can become the third team ever to have been three-time winners and the Steelbacks have an in-form 40-year-old inspiration.

Ravi Bopara hit 105 not out off just 46 balls in the win over Surrey to reach Finals Day, while Ben Sanderson and George Scrimshaw accounted for five wickets and are on 26 each in total in this season’s competition.

Head coach Darren Lehmann, in his first season at the club and who signed a contract extension until 2027 last month, oversaw his side’s first win at The Oval in 26 years as the former Australia coach has created a strong T20 outfit.

Captain David Willey says the underdogs feel “a lot of excitement and nerves”, and the former England international will hope to become a champion again after deciding the 2013 final against Surrey with a hat-trick.

“Ben [Sanderson] and myself managed that big occasion,” Willey said of the win over Surrey. “It’s just about doing that for an extended period at Edgbaston.”

Willey’s father, former Northants player Peter Willey, says his son “hardly listens to me at all”.

This will also be a record 11th T20 Finals Day appearance for Hampshire and they face Northants in the second semi-final.

The Hawks are one of the most successful sides in the format, holding the joint-most wins in the competition and they are looking to take home the title for a record fourth time.

They previously won the Blast in 2010, 2012 and most recently in 2022 when they beat Somerset and Lancashire on the day.

Hampshire won at Durham by 26 runs in the last eight to seal their spot, batting first and setting an impressive score of 221 which the hosts were unable to catch.

“Finals Day is the best day on the calendar,” bowler Chris Wood told BBC South Today.

“When you lift the trophy at the end it is a very satisfying feeling. Two of those three finals have come down to the last ball.

“We like to put on a crazy game of cricket, hopefully it isn’t as crazy as that at the weekend and we can get to the final.”

News broke this week that this will be the final T20 campaign for Hampshire’s head coach Adi Birrell, who will leave the club at the end of the current season following a seven-year stint at Utilita Bowl.

Birrell joined in 2019 and won the T20 Blast with the Hawks in 2022.

“What a man is all I can say really,” Wood added.

“When he came in, the club was in a tough spot in Championship cricket and although we haven’t won it, we have made massive strides.