Vitality Blast Finals Day Preview
13 September 2024
Gloucestershire return to Edgbaston to take part in their second Vitality Blast Finals Day in five years on Saturday.
Mark Alleyne’s side will face Sussex Sharks in the second semi-final in Birmingham with the winner of that match going head-to-head with the winner of Somerset vs Surrey in the final. If Gloucestershire do beat Sussex to claim a spot in the final, Jack Taylor and co will have a chance to win the Club’s first ever Vitality Blast title.
Gloucestershire’s place at Finals Day was confirmed following a memorable night at Edgbaston on Friday night. Taking on the Birmingham Bears, Gloucestershire were put in to bat first by the hosts having lost the toss. Despite Miles Hammond and Cameron Bancroft getting the innings off to a flyer in the powerplay, the Gloucestershire middle order struggled to capitalise. Helped by some excellent work in the field, Birmingham Bears managed to restrict Gloucestershire to 138 all out off 19.2 overs.
Set a target of 139 for victory, Birmingham Bears started sluggishly, unable to score quickly against the accuracy and variety of Gloucestershire’s bowling attack. Pegged back for the entirety of their 20 overs by Shire’s bowling unit, Bears were unable to get close to their target, falling 14 runs short with a final score of 124/9. David Payne with 4/23, Josh Shaw with 2/16 and Ollie Price with 3/32 the pick of the bowlers as Gloucestershire powered their way into the semi-finals of the competition.
Sussex Sharks, meanwhile, booked their spot at Finals Day with an emphatic victory over Lancashire Lightening at Hove. Having bowled Lightening out for 114, with five bowlers in the wickets, Sussex raced to 118/2 off just 14.1 overs to claim a resounding eight-wicket win.
TEAM NEWS
Mark Alleyne selects a 15-man squad for Finals Day. The only change to the 15-man squad selected to face Birmingham Bears is Zaman Akhter in for Ahmed Syed.
Marchant de Lange remains sidelined having picked up a hamstring injury in Gloucestershire County Championship match against Leicestershire earlier this season.
15-man squad for Finals Day:
OUR OPPONENTS
Sussex Sharks finished second in South Group having won 10 and lost five of their 15 T20 matches so far this season including their quarter-final victory over Lancashire Lightening.
Sussex’s Daniel Hughes is the competition’s top run-scorer with 595 runs while Tymal Mills has the third-most wickets, 24 from 14 innings.
Surrey, meanwhile, topped South Group with nine wins and just three defeats from 14 matches and claimed their spot at Finals Day with a five wicket win over Durham at the Oval.
Completing this year’s line-up is Gloucestershire’s local rivals, Somerset, who finished just two points ahead of Gloucestershire in the table with eight wins from 14 matches. Facing Northamptonshire at Wantage Road in the quarter-final, Somerset scored 215/3 on their way to registering a 17-run victory.
HOW TO WATCH
The Vitality Blast Finals Day will be shown live on Sky Sports from 10:30am with Gloucestershire’s semi-final against Sussex Sharks scheduled to start at 2:30pm. The final will take place from 6:45pm.
There will be no YouTube live stream for this match.
