About halfway through the afternoon session on day three, England’s ninth-wicket stand tilted from the vaguely irritating to the deeply frustrating phase for Australia. The interactive scoreboard had just flashed up a 50, the partnership neatly compiled between Chris Woakes and Stuart Broad, before the television cameras quickly panned to Steve Smith.
As the country froze one man held his nerve. Effortlessly he glided in, like a ship soaring across unruffled seas, Jofra Archer, a man who, just a year ago, no one in the country could have known might be here, delivering for England.
Sport means many different things to many different people. In the West, what is meant to be an entertaining pursuit tends to veer between two extremes: a serious, methodical affair, analysed in severe and sombre tones, and a raucous booze-up. Watch a South Asian nation, however, and the celebratory, festival-like atmosphere is a spectacle unlike any other.
New Zealand (137/0) beat Sri Lanka (136) by 10 wickets
There is a moment, before any sporting contest, where hope and opportunity triumph over all else. As Sri Lanka’s Lahiru Thirimanne deftly guided the first New Zealand delivery to the fine-leg boundary, those thoughts blossomed.
Sport means many different things to many different people. In the West, what is meant to be an entertaining pursuit tends to veer between two extremes: a serious, methodical affair, analysed in severe and sombre tones, and a raucous booze-up. Watch a South Asian nation, however, and the celebratory, festival-like atmosphere is a spectacle unlike any other.
How do you bowl to Jos Buttler? That was the question put to Mickey Arthur, Pakistan’s head coach, after his team found themselves on the wrong end of a Buttler onslaught. Buttler showed no mercy as he belted 110 runs from 55 balls, and still ended up unbeaten.
Sam Northeast’s match-winning century started and ended to mild, but universal, applause. The least you might expect on reaching three figures but, for the former Kent captain (105 not out from 95 balls), not necessarily a given; in last year’s final at Lord’s Northeast walked out to a sea of boos from the Kent travelling support.
Lancashire (267-4) lead Middlesex (265) by 2 runs
If Keaton Jennings was the question at the start of play, Haseeb Hameed, by its close, was the answer. Once a vulnerable target for the shorter ball, now it was his forte, as the Lancashire opener reached his century with a neatly pulled six off the back foot.
• Rapids chase down Sharks’ 157 with nine balls to spare
• Cox smashes winning runs and finishes 46 not out
Given the day out had begun almost eight hours previously, it was a show of restraint that we were a full 15 minutes into the final before we saw the first conga line. A similarly disciplined Worcestershire bowling performance meant the Finals Day debutants were crowned champions of the Vitality Blast, chasing down Sussex’s 157 with nine balls to spare.
Edgbaston will be full for a Finals Day that promises to show some of the game’s less heralded sides at their Twenty20 best
Surrey have already been crowned county champions, England have wrapped up a Test series victory over India and the football season is back in full flow. Now, three weeks after the Vitality Blast’s quarter-finals, Somerset, the Worcestershire Rapids, Lancashire Lightning and the Sussex Sharks descend on Birmingham on Saturday for Finals Day.
Isabelle Westbury 