Twenty 20 Revision

The Epilogue 

Some might say that following the re-vamp of the oldest senior Twenty/20 competition that the side that embraced “re-vamp-ment” the most, deserved to win the competition.

As it is Birmingham Bears won the opening Nat West Twenty 20 Blast at Edgbaston Cricket ground (or should that be the Birmingham International Cricket Stadium) last Saturday making the most of their home advantage.

Saturday’s Finals Day had all the traditional trimmings of previous T20 Finals Days; dancers, drummers, fireworks, music, mascot races, inane commentary, rain interruptions, Duckworth-Lewis calculations, the wheeling out of a once retired heroes, the appearance of an almost universally loathed antihero and some exciting cricket.

One more-enduring result of the day might be that Freddie Flintoff will come out of retirement and play the T20 World circus/circuit ; after he played his third match of the season in the final and received offers from Australian Big Bash franchises as a result. Fred could have won the day for Lancashire had he retained the strike in the final over but Bears, who had won the least matches of the four semi-finalists to reach the day, won by only 4 runs.

The Bears’ win highlights the missed opportunity by Outlaws who had previously this season beaten Bears on their home turf in T20, finished comfortably above them in the hardest of the two groups and for but one performance would have been at Edgbaston on Saturday.

Had Outlaws bowled better to James Vince or Alex Hales had held on to that catch in the quarter final or the playing of Riki Wessels at No.3 had happened sooner in the earlier group games and Outlaws had finished above Lancashire in the table; things might have been different.

Nottinghamshire have invested a lot into the competition, both in squad and match day experience, rewarded by having the largest crowds outside of London, larger than megalopolises of Birmingham, Manchester and Leeds, but Bears’ win can only rub salt in the wounds of disappointment further. What if… or what if…?

Outlaws’ reward is also to see that Alex Hales has risen to ODI opener on top of his cemented position of T20I opener and that Harry Gurney as England contender in both T20I and ODI formats. This observer’s reward however has been the emergence of Luke Fletcher as a deadly at the death bowler. Fletch bowls straight out of the 1980s One Day bowling manual, but this year it has been pretty effective so far…….. hopefully for 30 more overs of the Pelican Cup 2014 that will continue. DDG