The 2022 T20 Blast lived up to its dramatic reputation with the marquee T20 tournament of England ending in a nail-biting finale that saw Hampshire triumph over Lancashire by one run. The two sides displayed their best cricket in their respective semi-finals and were equally competitive in the final match which saw the Lancashire batters protest over an umpiring decision that might have given them the victory.
Needing a target of 152 for the win, Lancashire took the best possible approach — play the game out with decisive and careful shots. Their highest run-getter was Steven Croft, who scored 36 off 25 balls, but a collapse of the lower order coupled with some excellent death overs bowling by the Hampshire bowlers saw the match slip out of their hands, eventually needing 11 runs off the final over, which was bowled by Nathan Ellis.
The Australian pacer was sure to not give a boundary in the first three deliveries and kept the bowling very tight, giving away just four runs as the equation came down to seven needed off the last three deliveries. But a run out on the fourth ball and a double from Richard Gleeson on the penultimate delivery meant Lancashire required five runs to win off the final delivery.
It was in this ball that Ellis played out a pitch-perfect yorker to dismiss the batter as the Hampshire players were rightly in Ecstacy thinking that they have just secured a four-run victory and the title.
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But as the fireworks burst out and the Men in Yellow had their initial celebrations and had formed a huddle, they were informed by the umpire about a no-ball while calling the players back. This left Lancashire now needing three off the final ball.
Ellis kept his calm to bowl a slower delivery on short-of-a-good length, which was enough for Gleeson to miss. Even though the batters snuck in for a bye, it wasn't enough for them to level the score and Hampshire prevailed by just a solitary run.
Earlier, Ben McDermott was the star of the show for Hampshire with the bat smashing a 36-ball 62. Hampshire skipper James Vince was named the player of the tournament for scoring 678 runs in 16 matches. This was Hampshire's third Blast title after 2010 and 2012.
