If I may, I’d like to start with the end. I shall return to the Vitality Blast but for me the main event was the five-day final of 2020’s Bob Willis Trophy. The coronavirus crisis prevented any professional cricket until August but the ECB’s hastily-organised Championship substitute has proved a surprise hit.
With fans absent, counties invested in superior camera angles for streaming and supporters have responded enthusiastically. On the pitch, as last year, Essex and Somerset dominated the first-class game and once more met to decide the direction of the premier trophy. Given Somerset’s recent record, it was inevitable that they again finished as runners-up, albeit without actually losing.
It was strange to see a batting line-up lacking Trescothick, Hildreth and Trego but Ed Byrom (aged 23) and Tom Lammonby (20) delivered well-crafted centuries. However, it was the rather more experienced Sir Alastair Cook whose 172 essentially won the competition by means of a narrow first-innings lead at Lord’s. On the final day, Jack Leach got amongst the top-order so Ryan Ten Doeschate gave up the run chase and helped dig in to secure the draw Essex needed.
Essex are also the reigning Vitality Blast champions but they have been way off the pace this rump of a summer. The South group was topped by Surrey’s band of internationals, joined in the quarter-final line-up by Sussex (who beat Essex in the final round) and Kent. For all the contributions of Roy, Billings, Harmer, Topley et al, the week’s stars from this group were probably Laurie Evans and George Garton. The former struck two 70+ scores for the leaders, while the latter claimed four wickets in each match bolstered by some lusty late hitting. Hampshire were never really in the hunt but Shaheen Shah Afridi stole the show by bowling out Middlesex with the final four deliveries of the contest, ending with 6-19!
The Central group was quite a tight affair. Come the final weekend, Gloucestershire were home and dry but Somerset could sneak into the quarters with victory at Bristol. They very nearly made it but Tom Smith hit the very last ball to the boundary to end their hopes. That meant that winners of Northamptonshire v Birmingham Bears at Edgbaston would progress. Adam Hose’s brilliant 119 looked likely to be decisive only for Tom Taylor to reach his maiden fifty in the penultimate over and snatch a three-wicket victory.
Nottinghamshire easily held on to first place in the North group thanks partly to Ben Duckett’s half-centuries and Steve Mullaney’s typical mix of wickets and cameo innings. Lancashire finished second despite losing heavily to Durham and falling tamely to Leicestershire. Nevertheless their seven-run Roses success at Old Trafford earlier in the week was enough to qualify on twelve points. Joe Root again made a desperate pitch for an England T20 recall by scoring two 60s and taking three cheap wickets.
And so the domestic T20 tourney heads towards a climax in the autumn gloom of October. The students may be spreading Covid like the leaves of a chestnut tree but hopefully this truncated cricket season may yet give us cricket fans something else to savour. At least it won’t be Somerset coming second….
Team of the Week: A.
Cook (Ess), Rutherford (Wor), Lammonby (Som), Evans (Sur), Root (Yor), Duckett
(Not), Moores (Not +), Gregory (Som), Garton (Sus), Trevaskis (Dur), Shaheen
Shah Afridi (Ham)
