When Ollie Price smashed a six down the ground, it was done. Gloucestershire, the least fancied side heading into finals day, had their hands on a first T20 Blast Trophy – announcing themselves champions in emphatic style. Throughout the day, they produced a tour de force of T20 cricket.
Cameron Bancroft and Miles Hammond batted superbly to reduce Somerset’s bowlers to cannon fodder. But the foundations were laid by Gloucestershire’s bowlers. Twice, they restricted their opponents to sub-par totals. On both occasions, the chases felt mere formalities. It shouldn’t have been this easy: having waited nine years for fresh silverware, Gloucestershire added to their cabinet without breaking a sweat.
There is no escaping the resemblance between this team and the noughties juggernaut led by Mark Alleyne, now their coach. They may be short on stars but they bowl with ingenuity, field with vigour and are shrewdly marshalled by Jack Taylor. Like Alleyne’s sides, they are full of spirit and greater than the sum of their parts.
Leading into the showpiece, there had been navel-gazing over the space that the Blast holds in the English summer. The all-West Country final felt the perfect antidote to any sense of anticlimax. Never before had these neighbours contested the tournament’s main event: as the sun set on a glorious late summer’s day, the Edgbaston crowd – supped full of cider and decked out in technicolour fancy dress – came to life.
Winning the toss, Taylor had no hesitation in sending Somerset into bat. Fielding first had worked for his side in the semi, but early scalps were not forthcoming. In the third over, Tom Kohler-Cadmore struck two hulking sixes. Under pressure, the captain turned to his brother Matt, whose introduction brought a double breakthrough. That turned the contest: in Taylor’s next over, Bancroft had James Rew caught with a leaping effort. By the end of the powerplay, Gloucestershire were in control.
They continued to chip away, bowling tightly and strangling Somerset. Sean Dickson tried a reverse sweep and was castled by Ollie Price first ball. Aware that another wicket would spell disaster, Tom Abell and Lewis Gregory rebuilt judiciously. But the boundaries dried up; from the end of the third to the start of the 14th, Somerset managed a single over worth more than eight runs.
Attempting to break free, Abell clumped a checked drive to long-on. David Payne’s reintroduction brought further trauma. Immediately, he tricked Ben Green, then Craig Overton with slower balls. When Roelof van der Merwe fell in the next over, Somerset were eight down and in deep water.
As wickets tumbled, Gregory proved the only bright spark. The captain reached his half-century off 33 balls, but holed out to Ollie Price in the 19th over. When Jake Ball tamely chipped to the same fielder, Somerset’s innings was done, two balls short of their quota.
Safe in the knowledge that their bowlers had done the hard graft, Gloucestershire’s openers batted with fluidity. Somerset’s attack carried little threat: when Bancroft launched sixes in the third and fourth overs, the result felt a foregone conclusion. Hammond soon joined in the party. Gloucestershire were 76 without loss after nine. Somerset required a miracle.
Nothing was going for Gregory’s men. A Hammond slog-sweep dropped inches beyond the boundary. Green thought he had Bancroft’s wicket, but DRS overturned the decision. To Gloucestershire’s credit, there was no jeopardy in the chase. It was simply a matter of when they would complete victory.
Somerset eventually dismissed Bancroft and James Bracey but by that stage they were playing for pride. Gloucestershire had been near note-perfect all day. If they can keep playing like this, there will be more silverware in the pipeline. For now, they should smile and celebrate; this was a performance their coach, and county, will be proud of.
