Five times Lancashire had made it to T20 Finals day without winning, most agonisingly last year when they lost off the final ball, but the Red Rose county put those frustrating memories behind them on Saturday night, beating Northamptonshire by a margin that sounds rather more comfortable than it was.
It was the last over before the Lancashire captain, Steven Croft, who has 118 consecutive T20 matches for the county since 2006, could begin to savour the prospect of finally lifting the trophy.
Relief, Croft said, was his predominant emotion. “I think it was 1999 we last won a one-day competition, so it’s been a long time coming, but it was a great squad effort.
“We lost some key players at the end of last season, but we had our match-winners and were always confident we could knock sides over.”
Unlike the semi-final, in which they had comfortably beaten Warwickshire’s Birmingham Bears, the Northamptonshire opening bowlers Rory Kleinveldt and David Willey did not take four quick wickets and put their opponents firmly on the back foot from the start.
Lancashire’s openers Ashwell Prince and Alex Davies instead went on the attack and, despite being hampered by a lack of pace in the pitch, had 52 on the board by the end of the first powerplay.
It was the impish, innovative Davies who led the way. With the pitch also offering a modicum of turn, spinners had been effective in the semi-finals, but the introduction of left-armer Graeme White did not stem the flow.
Shadi Afridi, the Pakistan international leg-spinner, proved harder to get away, and Davies – having raced to 47 off 26 deliveries – gave occasional off-spinner Josh Cobb the charge, missed and was bowled.
Afridi himself struck in the following over, Karl Brown stumped after missing a ball down the leg side.
But Lancashire would have taken 80 for two at halfway. Even so, sensing a loss of momentum, they pushed Joss Buttler up to four.
The England wicketkeeper launched White for the longest straight six of the day, and with Prince belying his 38 years with speed between the wickets, a rate of nine runs per over was maintained. Needing wickets, Northants turned back to Willey and he obliged, with Buttler caught at deep point by Cobb before Prince guided a slow bouncer to backward point.
The following over, Afridi picked up two more wickets, James Faulkner slapping him high to Richard Levi at cover, and Liam Livingstone bowled by the googly, meaning four wickets had fallen for the addition of only seven runs.
Much now depended on the Northants opening batsmen. Levi, who hit an unbeaten 63 in the semi-final win over Birmingham, and Willey took the score to 32 in the fourth over, but Levi then cracked James Faulkner straight to mid-off, and in his following over the Australian had Willey caught off an attempted pull.
Ben Duckett swung once too often at Stephen Parry’s left-arm spin, but Cobb and Afridi kept Northants, arguably the most unfashionable of the first class counties, and currently the most financially challenged, in the running to win the competition for the second time in three years.
Afridi holed out off the debutant Gavin Griffiths, but Cobb, who took four wickets for Leicestershire when the county won the competition in 2011, continued to threaten. However, towards the end of the innings boundaries eluded him, and gradually the equation became impossible. It had been a brave effort, and a grand final after the two hugely disappointing matches that preceded it.
“It will always be tougher for smaller counties to compete, and it would have been nice to win it and prove a point, but they were the better team,” said the Northamptonshire captain, Alex Wakely.
