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.
Scores: Hampshire 194-6 (20 overs): Albert 85, Vince 52; Ball 2-39
Somerset 195-4 (19 overs): Smeed 94; Currie 2-44
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 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.” (BBC Sport)