Smeed takes Somerset past Hants to win T20 Blast

Vitality Blast final, Edgbaston

Hampshire 194-6 (20 overs): Albert 85, Vince 52; Ball 2-39

Somerset 195-4 (19 overs): Smeed 94; Currie 2-44

Somerset win by six wickets

Match scorecard

Somerset chased a record-breaking 195 to beat Hampshire Hawks and win their third T20 Blast title.

Will Smeed's magnificent 94 off 58 balls formed the backbone of Somerset's innings, while Sean Dickson weighed in with a crucial 33 not out.

Smeed fell at the start of the 19th over with 18 still needed, but captain Lewis Gregory came in and struck two sixes to take Somerset to 195-4 - the highest score in a final.

After Chris Lynn's blistering century in the semi-final, Hampshire impressed with the bat again making 194-6.

Toby Albert became the competition's leading run-scorer this season with 85 off 48 deliveries but Hampshire were denied a fourth Blast trophy thanks to Smeed's wonderful knock.

Somerset now join Hampshire and Leicestershire with three titles, following their wins in 2005 and 2023.

Somerset opener Will Smeed took his tally past 600 runs in this season's T20 Blast

Somerset bounce back

Somerset can now proudly claim to be the team to beat in T20 cricket in England having made three finals in a row, winning two of them.

Following their 2023 victory over Essex it was a different story last season as they suffered an eight-wicket thrashing at the hands of Gloucestershire.

They appeared to be struggling to keep up with the required run-rate of almost 10 per over this time around before Smeed and Dickson turned the game on its head with a fourth-wicket stand of 88.

Smeed and Tom Kohler-Cadmore, who made an outstanding 81 in their semi-final win over Lancashire, had got Somerset off to a lightning start, taking them to 46-0 in the fifth over when Kohler-Cadmore was bowled by Sonny Baker's rapid yorker.

On a day where 44 sixes were struck, Kohler-Cadmore hit the biggest of them all when he swiped Chris Wood over the Eric Hollies Stand.

But a couple of overs later he was gone as young England paceman Baker yorked him with an 88mph beauty.

At 89-3 in the 10th over, the game was in the balance but Smeed continued to find boundaries, hitting 14 fours and a six in total.

Perhaps the crucial moment came in the 14th over when Scott Currie dropped Dickson on the boundary with the required run-rate above 12 an over.

Smeed chipped Currie to James Vince on the long-off boundary six short of a deserved century to give Hampshire hope before Gregory ended it in the same over with a four and a couple of leg-side sixes.

"The ball seems to fly here especially under the lights and the dew comes in so we always knew we had a chance," Smeed told BBC Radio 5 Sports Extra.

"It was some proper hitting from Lewis [Gregory] at the end there as well.

"The guys have been unbelievable in the whole competition, different people have stood up in different games.

"I think that's probably our strength, we've got match winners one to 11 and if it's someone's day they can get us over the line."

Albert stars in losing cause

Hampshire opener Toby Albert made his sixth half-century in this season's T20 Blast

It was fitting that 23-year-old Albert, who has enjoyed a breakthrough season for Hampshire, starred in the final albeit in a losing cause.

The Basingstoke-born wicketkeeper has played in all of Hampshire's 17 matches up to the final, scoring 633 runs at an average of just under 50.

Vince, who has featured in every one of Hampshire's 11 Finals Day appearances, also went past 500 runs for the season and looked hugely disappointed when he was caught on the boundary after making 52.

Albert combined pure power in smashing two huge leg-side sixes with some incredible reverse flicks to the rope off the pace bowlers.

He looked on course to become the second Hampshire batter to score a century on Finals Day following Lynn's heroics in the semi-final win over Northants but was bowled by Gregory while backing away.

However, his second-wicket stand of 97 with captain Vince following the early dismissal of a fatigued Lynn set Hampshire up for a record-equalling score of 194 in a final – matching the 194-2 made by Northants against Surrey in 2013.

It lasted a mere 90 minutes as Somerset set a new milestone in reaching the target with an over to spare.

'We did it the hard way again' - reaction

Somerset captain Lewis Gregory told BBC Radio Five Live Sports Extra:

"Unbelievable, super chuffed for the boys, we did it the hard way again [after taking 19 off the final over to beat Birmingham in the quarter-finals].

"It's great to be part of this team. Year in, year out we're challenging for this trophy and to get over the line is mighty special.

"It's much easier out there than to be watching, I guess you're in control of things. When you're watching, you're wishing the lads to smash a few out of the park and to do it is an amazing feeling.

"We've been in tough spots and someone has pulled us out. We've got a team with guys who can win matches on their own and we've seen that over the past few games."

Hampshire head coach Adrian Birrell told BBC Radio Five Live Sports Extra:

"I thought we did quite well to get to 194. Toby Albert and James Vince were outstanding then we had a little bit of a cameo at the back from Benny Howell, so you kind of think at halfway you've got a score and then for a long time during that innings we were in the game but we couldn't quite just peg them back.

"Every over and boundary they were getting, I don't think we executed that well.

"It was quite difficult to defend here with the outfield being so slick with the dew that had come in. A bowler going down in Chris Wood didn't help either but we weren't quite on it with our execution and that hurt us.

"They batted very, very well. Will Smeed played a match-winning innings in a final and all credit to him.

"I'm very proud of my team. It was a good campaign from us but we fell at the final hurdle and unfortunately cricket is cruel."