Northamptonshire Steelbacks, winners of this competition in 2013, belied their status as finals day underdogs by hammering last year’s champions, Birmingham Bears, in the first semi-final.
The Bears never recovered from being reduced to 14 for four on a good wicket, after Alex Wakely put them in. It looked a good call by the Northants captain once David Willey had pinned Varun Chopra leg before with an inswinging yorker in his first over and even better when, two balls later, Ian Porterfield played the loosest of drives at a perfectly straight delivery and it went through the gate and on to middle stump.
Warwickshire, or Birmingham as they insist on being known in this competition, continued to self-destruct. Tim Ambrose drove Rory Kleinveldt to the cover boundary but then chipped the next ball straight back to the South African at comfortable catching height. The disbelieving Northants supporters really did go up when, in Willey’s next over, Ian Bell pushed at a straight delivery angled across him and edged a catch behind.
From 14 four in the fourth over, Rikki Clarke and Ateeq Javid had to eschew extravagant risk, picking up singles rather than boundaries. The next six overs yielded just 27 runs, mostly in singles, and a halfway score of 41 for four was not what the Bears would have had in mind.
While a period of rebuilding was vital, Clarke and Javid let it go on far too long. Javid went to his 50 off 49 balls but Laurie Evans, with 18 off eight balls at the end of the innings, showed what might have been, while Chris Woakes, one of the Bears batsman most capable of scoring quickly, did not even get in.
Northants brought their 50 up in the seventh over, losing only Willey, holing out to deep square off Oliver Hannon-Dalby’s slower ball, in the process. There was a wobble when four wickets were lost for the addition of 28 runs in mid-innings but Richard Levi, with 63 not out off 46 balls, anchored the innings sensibly, and found an equally level-headed companion in Shahid Afridi to see the Steelbacks home with two overs to spare.
