[Ska'dForLife-WBA]

T20 Blast, Final

vs Essex

Edgbaston, Birmingham

Worcs innings: Essex won the toss and put the Pears in to bat as darkness fell. On a turning pitch, Hamish Rutherford was an early casualty, following a streaky boundary by playing down the wrong line to an off-break from Dan Lawrence and losing his off-stump. From there, Moeen Ali and Riki Wessels kept the runs flowing through the powerplay, but when the former was caught and bowled from a simple chip, another minor collapse followed. Ben Cox was desperately unlucky to be given out with a stinker of an LBW decision after stepping well outside the line of his stumps and getting a clear inside edge, and it required Daryl Mitchell to steady the ship as the Pears stumbled up to 145-9; a score almost identical to their semi-final tally.

Essex innings: Where Notts in the semi-final had looked dead certs to chase down the score without breaking a sweat, somehow it was the opposite during the Essex innings, with Worcestershire keeping things well in hand for most of the evening. However, the southerners managed to accelerate at the back end in a way that had escaped the Pears, and with Ravi Bopara finding the boundary regularly, for the second time in a day it all came down to Wayne Parnell in the last over. Just when it looked like the South African would get Worcs over the line, Simon Harmer came up with a boundary off the penultimate ball, and once again two runs were required off the last delivery, with one enough to do the job due to the tie-breaker. Sadly, it was too much for ask for lightning to strike twice in the day, and a gallant defence of the T20 title was unsuccessful.

Worcestershire LOSE by four wickets

The Verdict: As gutting as the end result was, you can't begrudge Essex their first T20 title on one of the most entertaining Finals Days yet held. In a summer that's already shown us the very best of fifty-over and Test cricket, it's fitting that we saw the shortest format at its breathtaking best, and hopefully the Pears will bounce back again to give us more of the same next year.