“Cricket, bloody hell!”- Vitality Blast Final: Stumps uprooted, fireworks started, players celebrating, and then came the signal for the no ball
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Hampshire Hawks
The final match of the Vitality Blast 2022 was full of drama. Hampshire Hawks thought they had won it. They were full of joy, celebrating, jumping with uprooted stumps, the firework blasted in the night sky then the man they call an umpire signalled something which is dreaded at the point of winning a match. A no ball.
This happened on Sunday, July 17 at Edgbaston between Hampshire Hawks and Lancashire Lighting. Despite the drama and thrill of the no ball, Hampshire won it, by one run.
Nathan Ellis was delivering in the penultimate over. And after the celebration, when the umpire called it a no ball, then Lancashire had a free hit and just two runs were needed to tie the match. According to their rule, if a match ties, then the higher powerplay total would render the that team the victory and Lancashire had the higher powerplay total.
The free hit had gone for a single and Hampshire claimed their third title, equalling Leicestershire’s record for the most domestic T20 titles in England.
But another thing happened there. When Richard Gleeshan missed the free hit and he and Hartley scampered through for a single run and then they had even gone for a second run to level the scores and would give victory to Lancashire courtsey of higher powerplay total. But amidst confused scenes, Hampshire were uprooting the stumps despite Vilas was talking with the umpire about it. However, the umpire deemed it a dead ball.
“We thought the ball was still live,” Vilas said. “There was a little bit of confusion out there but the umpires called the ball dead as soon as they took the stumps off at the striker’s end.
“Everything was going on out there at that stage and I can’t be 100 per cent sure of what was said, exactly, but we thought maybe we could have had a look and seen if there was a review or something.
“But obviously there wasn’t and it ended up going Hampshire’s way.”
Asked if the umpires could have conferred after a replay, Vilas added: “We look for everything else but ultimately it’s their decision and their decision is final, which we as players know and respect.”
Check how Twitter reacted to Hampshire’s win
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Gouri Das
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