And finally... (August 11, 2007)
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Last Saturday, at Edgbaston, England, the Finals Day of the Twenty20 Cup took place.
The tournament was founded a few seasons ago to increase interest in County Cricket. It is only 20 overs per side, and fits into three and three quarter hours after school. It is a fast paced game, as opposed to the slower, defensive style of Test Matches (whose time period is 5 days, or 450 overs in total). It is popular with fans due to the shortness of the game, and generally big crowds, by County standards, attend the matches.
The tournament is 3 regional groups of 6, with the winners of each group and the 5 best runners up go into the Quarter Finals. The winners of those Quarter Finals advance to the Finals Day.
There were four counties present, naturally enough, Lancashire, Gloucestershire, Kent and Surrey. Lancashire played Gloucestershire in Semi Final 1, and Kent played Surrey later in the afternoon.
Lancashire had their hero, Andrew Flintoff, a talisman of global cricket, playing in their side. Gloucestershire's fielding was excellent in the Lancashire innings. They were restricted to 148 for 6, with Flintoff run out for just 3. Lancashire had the superior bowling in Muttiah Muralitharan, James Anderson and Flintoff, but Craig Spearman, who average just under 8 in this season's competition with the bat until that point, made 86 runs off 55 balls. Kadeer Ali made 33 not out as Gloucestershire cruised home. Flintoff and Muralitharan were powerless.
Next on the field were Kent and Surrey. Sussex were bowled out for 140, collapsing from 60-0 and 81-1. Darren Stevens conceded just 13 runs from 4 overs. Kent looked to be cruising at 65-0, but a stream of wickets followed. It came down to the final over of the match. Robert Key hit the winning runs, to make his total 68 not out from 54 balls, to win the game on 141-5.
So the final would pit Gloucestershire and Kent against one another. Gloucestershire made just 146 for 8, with Kyle McLaren taking a hat-trick to restrict the batsmen. Kent needed 147 to win. After a tense run chase, it came down to the final over once again, with Kent needing 13 off the final over. A no ball was missed by the scorers, only TV picked up on it. As Darren Stevens again became the hero, clubbing boundaries to win the game, Kent ran off to celebrate, but nobody else was sure they had won. After a delay for the scorers to check, it was calculated that Kent had actually won.
Darren Stevens had been the unlikely hero for Kent. For so long a "journeyman" professional on the County scene, Stevens' moment of glory will be remembered by Kent folk for years to come. It was only Kent's third domestic title in the last 29 years.
