England’s Vitality T20 Blast ended on Saturday with Cameron Bancroft and David Payne’s Gloucestershire winning the title over Somerset.
This is relevant as this comp always offers plenty of BBL insight given the number of players who come out to Australia.
There’s always plenty of Aussies involved, but a lot of the players picked up in the BBL Draft nowadays are English lads, who aren’t quite full internationals yet, thus the Blast is their domain.
On Saturday, the Blast concluded with two semi-finals followed by the decider all played at Edgbaston as part of their finals day. So which BBL-relevant players shone?
Blast Finals Day
In the early game, Somerset beat Surrey, with Strikers recruit Ollie Pope dismissed for 19 off 17 balls batting at 3.
Surrey’s Hurricanes all-rounder Chris Jordan got smoked, going for 40 overs from 4 overs without a wicket. Stars import Tom Curran opened the bowling and finished with 1-23 from 4. Renegades draftee Laurie Evans came in at 6 and tried to rescue Surrey, but only managed 22 off 19.
In Glocs’ semi-final win over Sussex, Heat import Tom Alsop – with his unusual raised-bat stance – was bowled for a golden duck.
Undrafted ex-Strikers and Scorchers bowler David Payne was one of the stars of the day, taking 1-9 (4) and 3-27 (4) for the day along with Thunder bat Cam Bancroft who made 39 off 35 and 53 off 42 opening the batting, albeit chasing small totals. He also took a great catch.
Across The Whole Season
Top Performers – Batsmen
Oft-maligned Sixers veteran Dan Hughes only managed 1 off 4 balls for Sussex in the semi-final but he was actually the Blast’s top scorer with 596 runs from 16 knocks at 39.73 with a strike rate of 167.88. There were 5 half-centuries in there too and he finished with the second most sixes in the comp. With these results, maybe there’s a chance he could open the batting for the Sixers?
Bancroft made the 4th most runs of the Blast albeit with only 2 half-centuries and a strike rate below 130. He’s proven himself a solid opening batsman who can anchor an innings. With Alex Hales gone from the Thunder and David Warner available, they’ll look different up top.
Thunder draftee Sam Billings was also in the top 10 for runs, despite the awkward role of primarily batting 4. He was really consistent this season, with a century in there for good stead.
Renegades recruit Jacob Bethell had some great knocks for Birmingham Bears batting at 5/6 to finish with 361 runs at 36.1 with a strike rate of 153.61. Birmingham actually finished top before crashing out in the quarters to the eventual winners Glocs.
Despite his failure in the semi-final, Alsop made 337 runs with a 160+ strike rate for Sussex batting anywhere from 3-6, offering some valuable versatility.
Top Performers – Bowlers
Payne finished as the Blast’s leading wicket-taker with the third best economy rate, so maybe he’ll be a late BBL selection if an import’s availability changes.
Heat all-rounder ‘Tall’ Paul Walter wasn’t amazing with the bat for Essex but he took a handy 17 wickets from 13 games with an 8.82 economy rate.
Stars draftee Tom Curran only played 9 games but managed 16 wickets at 13.68 for Surrey which was mighty impressive. Hopefully his injury troubles are beyond him. Sixers tyro Sean Abbott took 15 wickets in 8 games for Surrey too.
The aforementioned Bethell only bowled 12.4 overs in 15 games but still managed 6 wickets with an outstanding economy rate of 6.78 with his left-arm orthodox. Look out for him at Marvel.
Strikers all-rounder Jamie Overton didn’t bowl at all across 5 games for Surrey amid ongoing back issues. With that in mind, he only managed 71 runs from 5 knocks, albeit with a strike rate close to 170.
