HAMPSHIRE won an incredible, almost farcical Twenty20 Blast final against Lancashire just moments after they thought they’d already won it.
The match ended with smoke billowing around Edgbaston from a fusillade of fireworks that had been falsely detonated in the belief that Hampshire were the winners.
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The confusion came when Australian paceman Nathan Ellis of Hampshire threw Richard Gleeson of Lancashire with the last delivery of the 20e about.
Ellis charged 40 yards towards mid-wicket and was overrun by his jumping and cheering teammates. There were bangs and explosions as the fireworks were set off.
Hampshire and everyone in the crowd thought they had won by four runs.
But suddenly people noticed that umpire Graham Lloyd – son of former England coach David ‘Bumble’ Lloyd – had his arm outstretched for a no-ball.
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He beckoned the players back to bowl the last pitch again – and it was a free hit too.
There was a delay until the smoke spread and this time Gleeson swung and missed. He and Tom Hartley could only run a bye and Lancashire had really won by one point this time.
Lancashire thought the ball should have been alive to have the chance of a second bye to even the game. But the umpires ruled the ball dead when Hampshire players pulled stumps out of the ground.
Lancashire captain Dane Vilas said: “The umpires use technology for everything else so we would have liked them to have asked for a replay to see if we completed two runs.”
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Hampshire captain James Vince insisted: “Dane came onto the pitch and questioned the umpires. But they weren’t going to run two to the wicketkeeper, so I’m not sure what he meant.”
Ellis added: “My heart sank when I saw the referee’s arm sticking out – we had celebrated for 30 seconds. But James brought us all together, let us breathe and made sure everyone was aware of the situation.”
If the scores had been even, Lancashire would have won because they scored more points in the power play. The first decider – the number of wickets lost – was equal to eight for each team.
Hampshire really shouldn’t have been in the picture as Lancashire rushed to 72-1 in the eighth after chasing a modest goal of 152.
But Vince has the best bowling attack in the tournament at his disposal and they started taking wickets and choking runs.
They join Leicestershire as the only counties to have won the domestic T20 event three times.
Hampshire had no English players missing, while Lancashire could take on Matt Parkinson and Phil Salt, who were released from the one-day international squad by England.
But Jos Buttler and Liam Livingstone had to stay in Manchester to prepare for today’s series decider against India.
Wrist spinner Parkinson previously captured 4-26 and appeared to have bowled Lancashire to the win.
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Parkinson has been around the England squad for a number of years, but only gets limited opportunities.
And he’s been dumped from the 50-plus and T20s squad to meet South Africa for the next fortnight with Adil Rashid returning from the Hajj pilgrimage.
England think Parkinson’s bowling too slow, but he was fast enough to sack four of Hampshire’s best batsmen – including Aussie Ben McDermott, who looted 62 from 35 balls.
Parkinson also took 1-18 from three overs in the high scoring semi-final against Yorkshire as the Red Rose men chased 205 for the win with eight balls left.
Hampshire defeated Somerset by 37 runs in the other semi-final.