Personally the highlight of this week's Friends Life T20 quarter-finals was Somerset's progress to their fourth consecutive Finals day. Indeed, the way James Hildreth's excellent 58 was backed up by tight bowling from Albie Morkel and, surprisingly, Peter Trego, was hugely encouraging. Particularly so for skipper Marcus Trescothick, back in the saddle after missing most of the summer. Essex also welcomed back England stars Cook and Bopara as well as the experienced overseas pair of Franklin and Ten Doeschate, but they fell 27 runs and nine balls short of a gettable target at Taunton.
Nevertheless, yesterday's evening's encounter at Hove produced one of the most memorable innings in T20 history. Sussex had a dreadful start, losing both openers for three runs after seven balls. Murray Goodwin steadied the ship and Matt Prior swung merrily to set up what promised to be a useful score of 180-odd. Suddenly Scott Styris, replacing Prior, decided to earn his fee by striking out. The Gloucestershire spinners Muralitharan and Ed Young had completed their economical spells but with six overs to go, the seamers were back and the veteran New Zealander proceeded to double Sussex's score almost single-handedly! The eighteenth over, bowled by James Fuller, delivered a world-record 38 runs, helped by two no-balls which went for a six and four. Styris reached 100 in only 37 balls, the third fastest in the format's history. It was, in the all-rounder's words, one of his "better innings". An understatement, if ever there was one! Follow that, Gladiators! Marshall, Housego, Gidman and Fuller had a go, but couldn't produce that killer acceleration in the final overs.
This evening, Yorkshire made their own history by reaching the semi-finals for the first time, at the tenth attempt. Like Sussex, they batted first and exceeded 200. No scintillating century, but Gary Ballance supplied some fireworks in the last few overs, including five sixes in his 20-ball innings, four of them in David Lucas' final five balls of the twentieth over. In reply, Worcestershire's Phil Hughes was again the main man, but nobody gave him the required support. Fellow Aussie Mitch Starc returned at the end to strangle any late thrash to reach the target and the Tykes duly won by 29.
It was a much closer contest this evening as Hampshire left it mighty late at Trent Bridge. Notts were sent in to bat and, helped primarily by Samit Patel's 33-ball 60, managed 178-7. Hampshire made a scratchy start to their response but Neil McKenzie knuckled down to anchor the innings. Assisted by some urgent cameos from Dawson and skipper Mascarenhas, the South African kept them in the match, albeit a bit behind the required rate. After scrambling a bye, he needed to score eleven from the last four balls. Andy Carter's next two each went for four, followed by two. One to win off the last ball, but McKenzie duly despatched the final delivery for another boundary to book their place at next month's Cardiff carnival by four wickets.
So who will win? Somerset, of course, always seem to come second, beaten by a freak incident. Hampshire got the better of them a few years ago. Yorkshire have a strong bunch of players but can they do enough to win twice in one day? Sussex have been scoring runs for fun, and not just from Scott Styris, but their bowling is not the best in the competition. Of course, any T20 game can rest on a single missed chance. Murali had a simple opportunity to run out Styris early in his innings so things could have panned out very differently. Ifs, buts and maybes. I just hope Somerset don't meet the Sharks in their semi. Throughout the competition, they have shown some very sharp teeth.
