Birmingham Bears were crowned winners of the 2014 Natwest t20 Blast as they overcame Lancashire Lightning in a tense final at Edgbaston to edge the match by just four runs.
The hosts posted a daunting total of 181/5 in 20 overs thanks to Laurie Evans, who smashed 55 in just 30 deliveries to bolster Birmingham's score after useful contributions from Varun Chopra (30) and Will Porterfield (31).
Lancashire seemed to be on course for a fairytale victory as Andrew Flintoff removed Ian Bell with his first delivery and later thumped two sixes in his innings of 20 not out, but the Lightning fell four runs short as Stephen Parry failed to hit the final ball of the match for a six which would have given his side their first t20 trophy.
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| Flintoff and his teammates celebrate the wicket of Ian Bell with Flintoff's first ball of the match. |
Despite winning the most matches since the introduction of the twenty20 format in 2003, Lancashire remain without a piece of silverware having reached Finals Day five times and the final twice.
This was Warwickshire's first final since 2003 and in defeating Lancashire their first t20 crown in the tournaments 12-year history.
Birmingham elected to bat first suffering the early loss of England international Bell (4) as Karl Brown took a superb catch over his head to give Flintoff (1-20) a wicket with his first ball.
However, the powerplay belonged firmly to the Bears, as they reached 64/2 in the seventh over where they lost Varun Chopra to Steven Croft (1-17).
Porterfield then fell with the score at 84/3 to Stephen Parry (1-30) as he was bowled for 31 after he had made his highest t20 score of the season in the semi final against Surrey, smashing 81 in 47 deliveries to lead his side to victory.
Rikki Clarke had also impressed in the first fixture of the day with 35 in 24 balls, but he fell for slightly less on this occasion with a run-a-ball 27 before falling to Tom Smith in the 14th over.
At this point Lancashire would have felt in control, but Evans and Chris Woakes had other ideas, adding 63 runs for the fifth-wicket to ensure that the visitors would need to be at their best with the bat.
Evans spearheaded the Bears' innings with two fours and four sixes, reaching his half-century in just 28 balls, before he too was dismissed by Smith (2-30). Woakes made a useful contribution of 22 in 15 balls, striking the final ball of the innings for four to give Anderson miserable figures of 0/52 in four overs.
If Lancashire had managed to chase 182 it would have been their highest successful run-chase in t20 cricket, but what appeared to be an unassailable score proved to be just that, as the Lightning fell agonisingly short.
They made an improvement on their start from the semi final as Tom Smith and Ashwell Prince negated the first five overs of the powerplay unscathed. Smith (19) played the more aggressive role of the two, lofting two sixes in his innings before he fell to Chris Woakes (2-34) at 41/1.
Prince had been the pillar which Lancashire built their success upon in the semi final and started his second innings of the day with the same amount of authority. However, the South-African international felt the pressure enforced by Usman Khwaja and was bowled by Boyd Rankin (2-30), playing a shot caused by an ever-increasing run rate.
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| Brown finished the t20 contest as Lancashire's leading run-scorer with 467 runs in 15 matches. |
Khawaja (16) continued to use up deliveries without ever causing any major issues for the Birmingham bowlers and he was eventually caught by Evans, with Rankin collecting his second scalp of the innings.
Having reached 77/3 Lancashire could depend on their in-form one-day player, Karl Brown, who top-scored for the Lightning with 55 off 28 deliveries. His efforts kept Lancashire in contention despite the mammoth task of chasing a further 132 runs from the final 13 overs, reaching his fourth half-century of the campaign.
Once again, Jos Buttler (11) failed to deliver the blockbuster innings many would have expected and was the first of three wickets claimed by Oliver Hannon-Dalby with Lancashire on 102/4.
The Birmingham pace bowler finished with figures of 3-31 from his four-over allocation and dealt further blows to Lancashire's run-chase, removing Steven Croft (6) and Jordan Clark (10) to ensure that the Bears stayed in control.
These wickets came either side of a contentious dismissal, that of Paul Horton (1), who was judged to have been caught behind by Tim Ambrose off Jeetan Patel (1-34) despite replays clearing showing the ball to have come off the Lancashire skippers arm, not his bat.
Nevertheless, Horton showed a certain degree of dissent for his lack of appreciation towards the decision and was to be fined three penalty points for his reaction and later apologised for his actions.
This did however leave his side struggling on 125/5 and Brown's lone efforts became that much more significant as Lancashire were made to chase 50 from the final four overs of their innings. Brown raced to his fifty with his fourth six in 26 balls and followed this up with his third four before he was bowled by Woakes at 152/7.
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| Flintoff made 20 off eight balls but he was unable to see his side to their first t20 title. |
The loss of Brown dealt a sizeable blow to Lancashire's chances, but it also brought a certain Freddie Flintoff to the crease, as a sell-out crowd were given a nostalgic example of his capabilities with bat and ball.
The Lancashire all-rounder faced a tough task, coming in to bat with his side still needing 30 runs in 14 balls to win the match. Clark had hit a huge six of his own before he became Hannon-Dalby's third and final wicket, but Flintoff demonstrated his ever-present class on the big stage as he hit back-to-back sixes.
His efforts meant that Lancashire went into the final over needing 14 runs to win and eight runs from the last two deliveries, but when he failed to retain the strike with the penultimate delivery of the innings, it left Parry with the unenviable task of hitting a six to win the match.
In all of this chaos, Lancashire could have perhaps won the match much sooner, as Birmingham appeared to have gone past their cut-off time, which would have awarded Lancashire with six penalty runs.
However, the umpires judged Warwickshire to be in place to bowl the final over and when Parry managed just a single from the final ball of the match, the Bears achieved their first t20 success on home soil.
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