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England stars set to go head-to-head for their counties on NatWest T20 Blast Finals Day
Edgbaston will host a record, sell-out crowd for the domestic T20 competition’s 13th Finals Day
ECB reports aggregate attendance of more than 800,000 for this season’s competition – a 17 per cent increase
England T20 skipper Eoin Morgan is relishing the prospect of four of his England T20 squad going head to head in NatWest T20 Blast Finals Day at Edgbaston tomorrow before they team up to face Australia in Cardiff.
Jos Buttler’s Lancashire Lightning will face James Vince’s Hampshire in the second semi-final after David Willey’s Northants Steelbacks take on Chris Woakes’s Birmingham Bears, the holders who will again be on home territory and receive the most support from a sold-out 24,300 crowd – a new record for the competition.
All four will then head to Cardiff for the one-off NatWest T20 International at the SSE Swalec on Monday.
“It’s a great way for the four guys to get ready for our T20 against Australia, but I know the only thing on their minds on Saturday will be winning the NatWest T20 Blast title with their counties,” said Morgan, who enjoyed Finals Day success himself with Middlesex in 2008.
This will be the 13th Finals Day since Surrey won the first Twenty20 Cup at Trent Bridge in 2003, and the seventh at Edgbaston – where last season’s record attendance of 23,982 is already guaranteed to be broken, thanks to the extra seating that was installed by Warwickshire for the third Investec Ashes Test last month.
“It was a brilliant night for all of us to win at Edgbaston in such a great atmosphere,” recalled Woakes, who held his nerve against Andrew Flintoff in the last over as the Bears hung on for a four-run win to be crowned T20 champions for the first time. “It’s been a major goal for everyone at the club to get back to Finals Day this year, and we’re all really looking forward to it.”
“It was a great occasion to be involved with but obviously our aim is to go one better this year,” said Buttler, who has only made two appearances for Lancashire in the 2015 NatWest T20 Blast but still played a crucial part in securing their return trip to Edgbaston with half centuries in away victories at Yorkshire and then Kent in the quarter final.
Lancashire have won more T20 matches than any other county but are the only one of the four semi-finalists never to have won the tournament. Hampshire won it in 2010 and 2012 and are making a record-extending sixth appearance at Finals Day but have gone out at the semi final stage in each of the last two.
“It’s good to have been so consistent but it’s a much better day if you go all the way,” said Vince, who was man of the match with an unbeaten century in Hampshire’s quarter-final win at Worcester, and is hoping to make his England T20 debut in Cardiff on Monday.
Willey and Northants have happy memories of doing just that in 2013, when the all-rounder scored 60 and took a hat-trick to demolish Surrey in the final. “That was a great night for all of us and it’s very exciting for us to be going back to Edgbaston for another Finals Day,” said Willey, who smashed a century in their quarter-final win at Sussex, and is to join Yorkshire next season.
As ever, NatWest T20 Blast Finals Day will be about more than the cricket. There will be four live bands, pyrotechnics, acrobats, gunge tanks, and a Bungee Blast behind the RES Wyatt Stand – as well as the Mascot Race, in which Stumpy from Somerset will be defending his title.
Saturday’s sell-out will complete a record-breaking NatWest T20 Blast season, with aggregate attendances before Finals Day passing 800,000 for the first time, 17% up on last year’s total of 707,741.
The average gate is 6,664 - up from 5,801 last year, 15 of the 18 first-class counties increased their average attendances, and there have been 20 sold out fixtures – seven more than last year.
ECB’s Chief Executive Officer Tom Harrison said: “We congratulate all the First Class Counties on breaking the 800,000 barrier for the first time in the domestic T20 competition’s history and look forward to another action-packed and exciting NatWest T2O Blast Finals Day.
“Everyone at Warwickshire CCC takes great pride in staging Finals Day – and rightly so. It is always one of the highlights of the sporting summer and a full house at Edgbaston on Saturday will provide a fitting backdrop for the climax of a memorable season of domestic T20 competition.”
Edgbaston will host a record, sell-out crowd for the domestic T20 competition’s 13th Finals Day
ECB reports aggregate attendance of more than 800,000 for this season’s competition – a 17 per cent increase
England T20 skipper Eoin Morgan is relishing the prospect of four of his England T20 squad going head to head in NatWest T20 Blast Finals Day at Edgbaston tomorrow before they team up to face Australia in Cardiff.
Jos Buttler’s Lancashire Lightning will face James Vince’s Hampshire in the second semi-final after David Willey’s Northants Steelbacks take on Chris Woakes’s Birmingham Bears, the holders who will again be on home territory and receive the most support from a sold-out 24,300 crowd – a new record for the competition.
All four will then head to Cardiff for the one-off NatWest T20 International at the SSE Swalec on Monday.
“It’s a great way for the four guys to get ready for our T20 against Australia, but I know the only thing on their minds on Saturday will be winning the NatWest T20 Blast title with their counties,” said Morgan, who enjoyed Finals Day success himself with Middlesex in 2008.
This will be the 13th Finals Day since Surrey won the first Twenty20 Cup at Trent Bridge in 2003, and the seventh at Edgbaston – where last season’s record attendance of 23,982 is already guaranteed to be broken, thanks to the extra seating that was installed by Warwickshire for the third Investec Ashes Test last month.
“It was a brilliant night for all of us to win at Edgbaston in such a great atmosphere,” recalled Woakes, who held his nerve against Andrew Flintoff in the last over as the Bears hung on for a four-run win to be crowned T20 champions for the first time. “It’s been a major goal for everyone at the club to get back to Finals Day this year, and we’re all really looking forward to it.”
“It was a great occasion to be involved with but obviously our aim is to go one better this year,” said Buttler, who has only made two appearances for Lancashire in the 2015 NatWest T20 Blast but still played a crucial part in securing their return trip to Edgbaston with half centuries in away victories at Yorkshire and then Kent in the quarter final.
Lancashire have won more T20 matches than any other county but are the only one of the four semi-finalists never to have won the tournament. Hampshire won it in 2010 and 2012 and are making a record-extending sixth appearance at Finals Day but have gone out at the semi final stage in each of the last two.
“It’s good to have been so consistent but it’s a much better day if you go all the way,” said Vince, who was man of the match with an unbeaten century in Hampshire’s quarter-final win at Worcester, and is hoping to make his England T20 debut in Cardiff on Monday.
Willey and Northants have happy memories of doing just that in 2013, when the all-rounder scored 60 and took a hat-trick to demolish Surrey in the final. “That was a great night for all of us and it’s very exciting for us to be going back to Edgbaston for another Finals Day,” said Willey, who smashed a century in their quarter-final win at Sussex, and is to join Yorkshire next season.
As ever, NatWest T20 Blast Finals Day will be about more than the cricket. There will be four live bands, pyrotechnics, acrobats, gunge tanks, and a Bungee Blast behind the RES Wyatt Stand – as well as the Mascot Race, in which Stumpy from Somerset will be defending his title.
Saturday’s sell-out will complete a record-breaking NatWest T20 Blast season, with aggregate attendances before Finals Day passing 800,000 for the first time, 17% up on last year’s total of 707,741.
The average gate is 6,664 - up from 5,801 last year, 15 of the 18 first-class counties increased their average attendances, and there have been 20 sold out fixtures – seven more than last year.
ECB’s Chief Executive Officer Tom Harrison said: “We congratulate all the First Class Counties on breaking the 800,000 barrier for the first time in the domestic T20 competition’s history and look forward to another action-packed and exciting NatWest T2O Blast Finals Day.
“Everyone at Warwickshire CCC takes great pride in staging Finals Day – and rightly so. It is always one of the highlights of the sporting summer and a full house at Edgbaston on Saturday will provide a fitting backdrop for the climax of a memorable season of domestic T20 competition.”
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