This weekend, after the first ODI against South Africa we can really look forward to possibly the sixth most exciting day of the English domestic calendar: T20 finals day. In a perfect world, of course, the event would have been a few weeks ago at the latest. But given the farce that is the LVCC fixtures one should probably not expect too much from the ECB.
Somerset are in the semi-finals again and for the third year in a row (second in the semi-final) they will be playing Hampshire. It seems unlikely that the match will feature anything as thrilling as the last time the two sides played, but it still should be interesting. Somerset have James Hildreth, who scored 107* in the group stages and who scored 58 off 36 in the quarter-final. Hampshire, meantime, go into finals day off the heroics of Neil McKenzie and his unbeaten 79 against Notts. It’s always tricky to predict the result of a T20, but I think Somerset look the stronger side and should win. Hampshire squaked into the semi-finals in a way that none of the other sides did and I’m just not sure they have the strength to go farther. And, of course, Somerset need to win if they are to finish in their traditional runners-up place.
The other semi-final features Yorkshire, through to finals day for the first time, against Sussex. This is another match which could be quite high scoring as Yorkshire have put up some very good totals this year (and went past 200 in the quarter-final), but come up against Scott Styris. Styris hit an incredible 100* in the quarter final off only 37 balls including 38 off one over. Sussex also have Matt Prior, who is an underrated T20 player and I think was very unlucky to miss out on inclusion in England’s ODI and World T20 squads. Yorkshire’s bowling is decent, but they will probably be without Tim Bresnan. the ECB have not made him available, although Yorkshire are asking them to reconsider. I doubt they will be successful, however, and I would guess (and with T20 it really is only a guess) that Sussex will win. They simply seem to be the more talented side.
That would leave a Sussex v Somerset final, possibly. T20s are very much about who shows up on the day and there can be a lot of variation between matches in a way that is not seen as much in the longer forms. Predicting who will win even one is tricky and then extrapolating that prediction into another match is even more fraught. That said, for all the jokes about Somerset finishing runners-up, I think they actually do look the best side of the four at finals day, albeit not by a lot, and thus my money is on them to end their trophy drought. Whether they actually can finally harness that talent to get over the line will be another matter though.