Somerset seek another title at T20 Blast Finals Day

Somerset are looking to become the first team to successfully defend the T20 Blast title

It's all cricketing eyes on Birmingham this Saturday as Somerset head back to Edgbaston looking to become the first team to defend their title at T20 Blast Finals Day.

Less than 48 hours after beating Surrey at Taunton in one of the most exciting climaxes to a County Championship match ever, a large proportion of the players will again be on duty when the two sides meet 130 miles up the M5 in the Midlands.

It will be a much bigger crowd, in an entirely different setting, with different colours and entirely different fields to the Thursday teatime, 1968-style throwback spectacle of 10 Somerset fielders all in white crowded round the bat, but it promises to be another showstopper.

For the third time in four years, much to hosts Warwickshire's disappointment in particular, it will be an all-southern Finals Day at Edgbaston.

After winning the T20 title for the second time 14 months ago, treble-chasing Somerset are joined by 2003 winners Surrey, 2009 champions Sussex and West Country neighbours Gloucestershire, who have only ever made it to Finals Day three times before.

Saturday's schedule

First semi-final (11:00 BST) Somerset v Surrey

Second semi-final (14:30) Gloucestershire v Sussex

Final at 18:45

Sussex and Gloucestershire meet in the second semi but before then it is a repeat of last year's second semi, between two sides scrapping to win the same two trophies.

Somerset's astounding red-ball win on Thursday may have cost them the services of injured match-winner Tom Banton, without whose brave effort on one leg - batting with a runner - they would not even have got close.

But it moved them to within eight points of Surrey in the Championship title race with two games left, as the One-Day Cup finalists look for the first of the two wins they will need as they chase a first trophy treble since Warwickshire in 1994.

After being given a prime showpiece slot in mid-July for the last two years, Finals Day has been shifted back in the cricket schedule again. But not even the prospect of just how cold it can get in Brum in September when the sun has gone down can lessen the sense of anticipation.

Especially for those Gloucestershire fans denied the chance when they last got there in Covid-hit 2020, when Finals Day was played out in early October without a crowd.

The Gloucestershire contingent will be eyeing a West Country derby final against Somerset, who equal Hampshire's record of being at their 10th Finals Day.

Edgbaston has staged 15 of the 21 Finals Days - including the last 11 in a row

Can Somerset go back-to-back?

Somerset will have wicketkeeper James Rew in for Banton, who is sidelined with his ankle injury, but they are not short of Toms, with Abell, Lammonby and Kohler-Cadmore in their squad.

Ex-Worcestershire and Yorkshire man Kohler-Cadmore was part of the Somerset side who beat Surrey by 24 runs in the first semi last July, then beat Essex by 14 runs in the final.

"Last year was definitely the highlight of my career," Kohler-Cadmore told BBC Radio Bristol. "You want to play in finals, in front of a full house at Edgbaston. Going back-to-back would definitely top it.

“This is the reason why you play cricket. Normally you get to September and everyone’s a bit tired but I don’t see any of that. To know you can win all three trophies and do something nobody’s ever done, at least not recently, is huge."

Dom Sibley may attempt a few shots at Edgbaston on Saturday rarely seen in his Bears days

Surrey a 'tight unit' says coach Batty

Surrey only lost three of their 14 games as they finished top of the South Group, before Dom Sibley proved an unlikely hero when they chased 164 to beat Durham with two overs to spare in the quarter-final.

They go into Saturday on the back of a real downer after Thursday's red-ball defeat by title rivals Somerset and may be missing as many as four players who played in that quarter-final.

Will Jacks, Sam Curran, Reece Topley, and Jamie Overton are all on England T20 duty, thanks to the ECB's dovetailing of Finals Day in the middle of an England-Australia mini-series.

But Surrey head coach Gareth Batty knows this latest rematch with Somerset is a different kettle of fish.

"It will be a different format and different colour ball," Batty told BBC Radio London.

"There will be a few new faces in the match-ups and we will go again. We had a concentration lapse for the last hour at Taunton and it cost us."

Finals Day records of the four semi-finalists

Somerset: 10th Finals Day

Won: 2005 (v Lancashire), 2023 (v Essex)

Finalists: 2009 (v Sussex), 2010 (v Hampshire), 2011 (v Leicestershire), 2021 (v Kent)

Semi-finalists: 2012, 2018, 2022

Surrey: Ninth Finals Day

Won: 2003 (v Warwickshire)

Finalists: 2004 (v Leicestershire), 2013 (v Northants), 2020 (v Notts)

Semi-finalists: 2005, 2006, 2014, 2023

Sussex: Sixth Finals Day

Won: 2009 (v Somerset)

Finalists: 2018 (v Worcestershire)

Semi-finalists: 2007, 2012, 2021

Gloucestershire: Fourth Finals Day

Finalists: 2007 (Kent)

Semi-finalists: 2003, 2020

Who wants to stick their hand up?

Sussex are appearing in their third Finals Day in six years, having lost in the final to Worcestershire in 2018, then to Kent in the semi in 2021.

Captain Tymal Mills is the only survivor from both those games but head coach Paul Farbrace has plenty of experience of big days out with Kent, Warwickshire and England.

And the way Sussex made such short shrift of such a strong Lancashire side in the quarters is a real benchmark of their quality, after finishing second to Surrey in their group.

"I'm quite pleased we've got the afternoon game and not the morning game as the ground will be a lot more full by then," Farbrace told BBC Radio Sussex.

"We want big games. When I came into the ground at Hove before the quarter-final, you could sense the nervous excitement. We want more of that.

"Someone's got to win it. There will be nerves, of course, but now it's about who in our team wants to put their hand up when that ball's coming down out of the sky. And we have enough people with the experience to stay cool and keep their hands on the tiller."

Gloucestershire defended a score of just 138 to win their quarter-final at Edgbaston

'Exciting' West Country derby prospect

Having won only half their group games to sneak through in fourth place ahead of Essex, Gloucestershire are considered the underdogs.

But the way they defended 138 to beat Birmingham Bears in the quarters makes it quite clear that they are not to be underestimated.

"Ever since that Covid Finals Day it’s always been a monkey on our back. You want to get back there because it didn’t really feel like a proper Finals Day last time we were there. But we feel we deserve to be there," Gloucestershire paceman David Payne told BBC Radio Bristol.

"You can see the buzz. We have a really lovely mix of youth and experience in our T20 side. That blend is really nice, the modern cricketer who is aggressive and the old stalwarts with a bit more experience in their heads.

"I’d be lying if I said we hadn’t thought about or got excited about the possibility of a West Country derby in the final. We both have to do the job in the semi-finals but how cool would that be if that’s how it ended up?

Additional reporting by Alex Hoad