Lancashire v Surrey
There certainly is no business like showbusiness and yesterday at Edgbaston 20,000 fans turned up for a feast of hitting, diving, sliding and slogging. The weather was perfect, the ground immaculate and the cricket superb, indeed at times exhilarating.
And for the purists it must be stated that not always because of big hits, the first semi-final between Surrey and Lancashire was a low scoring match that still provided a tense and thrilling finish.
Surrey have some record in Twenty20 never having been beaten in the competition and part of the reason is their coolness under pressure. They had scored only 133, which on a good pitch and fast outfield, looked at least 30 too few but they took wickets, which is the best form of defence and challenged Lancashire to blink first.
Disappointingly for the large Lancashire contingent of the crowd, Dominic Cork’s, Warren Hegg’s and Chris Schofield’s eyes flickered like a camera shutter.
Andrew Flintoff, much to the disappointment of the neutrals in the crowd had been and gone, Carl Hooper had been bowled by the impressive left arm-spinner, Nayan Doshi, son of Indian Test player Dilip, and Dinesh Mongia had been caught behind off a very good ball by Paul Sampson. A seemingly easy chase had become tortuous, and Lancashire was struggling with 40 needed off the last five overs. However, such short matches can change in one over and some bold hitting by Cork off Doshi’s last over reduced the target to a very achievable 16 off the last two overs.
The very first ball of the next, Adam Hollioake’s last and Cork gambled with a lusty swing of the bat. As the ball sailed over long-on and into the crowd it proved a gamble that had paid off and it should have taken Lancashire to the final. Singles were all that was necessary from then but Cork, greedy for glory in front of the large crowd tried to lift the next delivery into the stands as well and was caught off a skied edge.
It was spectacularly naive cricket by him but thoughtful by Hollioake. The former Surrey and England captain has been the man of the tournament with 17 wickets in 17 overs before this match that suggests a canny understanding of bowling under pressure and his slower ball deceived Cork. Such composure was demanded from Azhar Mahmood in the final over as well. Only six was needed to tie the scores and allow Lancashire to win on fewer wickets lost and yet in a game based on boundaries Hegg and Schofield only managed five singles.
The two needed off the last ball to tie the scores was never possible after Schofield only succeeded in jamming a yorker into the in-field. Mahmood, quite rightly was soon buried by a mass of team-mates for a superb last over, but Surrey deserved to win for remaining nerveless. They had one chance to win, a slim one at that and grabbed it, Lancashire had numerous chances and contrived to abuse all of them. A point Flintoff made after the match when he admitted, "we choked a little bit towards the end".
Hollioake in contrast explained Surrey’s victory: "We’ve been in these positions quite a few times and must be doing something right." Experience is a great teacher.
Twenty20 Cup, 2004, 1st Semi Final
Lancashire v Surrey
Edgbaston, Birmingham
7 August 2004 (20-over match)
Result: Surrey won by 1 run
Series: Surrey advances to the Final
Toss: Surrey
Umpires: IJ Gould and JH Hampshire
TV Umpire: NJ Llong
Man of the Match: Azhar Mahmood
Surrey innings (20 overs maximum) R M B 4 6
AD Brown b Flintoff 32 25 15 7 0
JGE Benning b Anderson 16 10 12 3 0
SA Newman c Mongia b Flintoff 12 19 15 2 0
MR Ramprakash b Keedy 24 24 21 0 2
R Clarke lbw b Keedy 18 15 18 0 1
AJ Hollioake c Hegg b Mongia 1 3 4 0 0
Azhar Mahmood c Chilton b Keedy 13 10 12 0 1
*+JN Batty c Chapple b Mongia 3 8 7 0 0
J Ormond not out 5 8 9 0 0
PJ Sampson run out 0 1 0 0 0
ND Doshi b Anderson 1 5 7 0 0
Extras (lb 5, w 3) 8
Total (all out, 20 overs) 133
FoW: 1-24 (Benning), 2-61 (Brown), 3-66 (Newman), 4-109 (Clarke),
5-111 (Ramprakash), 6-111 (Hollioake), 7-121 (Batty),
8-127 (Azhar Mahmood), 9-128 (Sampson), 10-133 (Doshi).
Bowling O M R W
Anderson 4 0 28 2
Chapple 2 0 28 0 (1w)
Flintoff 3 0 15 2 (1w)
Hooper 4 0 26 0
Keedy 4 0 25 3 (1w)
Mongia 3 0 6 2
Lancashire innings (target: 134 runs from 20 overs) R M B 4 6
A Flintoff c Brown b Azhar Mahmood 15 8 10 3 0
SP Crook c sub (TJ Murtagh) b Clarke 12 24 13 2 0
MJ Chilton c & b Azhar Mahmood 11 8 9 2 0
D Mongia c Batty b Sampson 15 18 15 2 0
CL Hooper b Doshi 26 33 23 3 0
G Chapple lbw b Doshi 11 20 22 1 0
CP Schofield run out 8 21 11 0 0
DG Cork c Clarke b Hollioake 25 10 13 2 2
*+WK Hegg not out 3 8 4 0 0
Extras (lb 6) 6
Total (8 wickets, 20 overs) 132
DNB: G Keedy, JM Anderson.
FoW: 1-22 (Flintoff), 2-37 (Chilton), 3-47 (Crook),
4-63 (Mongia), 5-94 (Hooper), 6-95 (Chapple), 7-124 (Cork),
8-132 (Schofield).
Bowling O M R W
Azhar Mahmood 4 0 22 2
Clarke 4 0 31 1
Ormond 3 0 12 0
Sampson 1 0 5 1
Doshi 4 0 27 2
Hollioake 4 0 29 1
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