Friend’s Provident T20 Cup gets underway in England: A Round-up
The Champions League T20 format and schedule may not yet be out, but the teams that are definite out of the tournament are the ones from England. With the English first class dates clashing with the Champions League T20, the ECB has decided not to send their two sides for the tournament, and this means that there will be only ten teams in the tournament.
However, that does not prevent the ECB from going ahead with their T20 Cup, or the Friends Provident T20 Trophy that got underway on the 1st of June, with the game between the last year’s winner, Sussex and runner-up Somerset.
And much like last year, Sussex hammered Somerset at Hove, after piling on 155/7 in 20 overs. Luke Wright’s 39 at the top of the innings was the highest score, but that was enough for the side to win by 52 runs. Craig Kieswetter celebrated his call-up to international cricket with a 47, but none of the rest including captain Marcus Trescothick got going and the hosts won easily.
Sussex then won their second game of the tournament as well, as they beat Middlesex by 28 runs. Middlesex had contracted Adam Gilchrist for this season, but he failed with the bat.
In two of the other interesting games, Loots Bosman messed up the Yorkshire bowlers with a 50-ball 94, to win the game for Derbyshire by 65 runs, whereas Hampshire made heavy weather of the target of 115 set by Kent, before winning with two balls to spare.
The format of the tournament works like this. The 18 counties are divided into two groups based on their location, called the North Group and the South Group. Each of the nine teams in each of the groups then play against each other twice, on a home and away basis. Based on the results and the points table, the top four sides from each group qualify for the quarter-finals of the Friend’s Provident T20 tournament.
These eight sides then go on to play in the quarter-finals, and then, the winners of the quarters will play in the semi-finals and then the final. Earlier, both the finalists went on to qualify for the Champions League T20, but for this year, that will not be possible and hence the sides will probably not be motivated enough for the same.
Earlier, this tournament was called the T20 Cup, and has been played since 2003. Surrey won the inaugural edition of the tournament, and then, they were runner-up in 2004, before being losing semi-finalists in 2005 and 2006. The 2004 edition was won by Leicestershire, who then went on to win it again in 2006, with Somerset winning it in 2005 under Graeme Smith. Kent won in 2007, Middlesex in 2008 and Sussex are the defending champions by beating Somerset in 2009.
Warwickshire have entered the quarter-final of all the editions except 2006. Any guesses who will win the tournament this season?