Vitality Blast T20 | Essex beat Middlesex in thrilling last ball win in Vitality Blast T20 match at Lords

England’s T20 tournament ‘Vitality Blast’ is in full swing these days. Every day, all the cricket clubs and brilliant cricketers from many countries come on the field to show their talent. A match of this tournament was played at Lord’s Cricket Ground, the most prestigious ground of cricket, which was every moment with the thrill of T20. Face to face were the teams of Essex Club and Middlesex Club. In this match, many amazing things were seen one after the other.

Stevie Eskinazi’s scintillating century

In the match, Essex team won the toss and decided to bowl first. The team of Middlesex, playing under the captaincy of Steven Finn, who was an important bowler of the England cricket team, came out to bat first. Team’s opener 27-year-old South African batsman Stevie Eskinaji adopted an aggressive attitude from the beginning and started batting with a bang. Eskinazi scored a fine T20 century and played a scintillating innings of 102 not out in 61 balls. His innings included 2 sixes and 11 fours. Only two wickets fell in this innings and Middlesex’s team scored 183 runs in 20 overs.

Stevie Eskinazi (Twitter)

Dane Lawrence played a brilliant half-century innings, the match reached the last minute

After this, when Essex’s team came out to bat, they had lost their 2 wickets for 46 runs. But England’s 23-year-old all-rounder Dan Lawrence, who came out to bat at number three, raised the hopes by playing a brilliant half-century. On the other hand, Michael Pepper, supporting him well, played an innings of 43 runs in 32 balls. Pepper was dismissed by Green in the 13th over.

Dan Lawrence (Essex Eagles)

Just 2 overs left and the thrill began

With 18 overs gone in the innings, Essex, chasing a target of 184 runs, now needed 16 runs to win from the last two overs. His only 3 wickets had fallen and Dane Lawrence and well-known New Zealand all-rounder James Neesham were playing on the pitch. In the 19th over of the innings, Tom Helm came to bowl and on the second and fifth balls of the same over, he showed the way to the pavilion to Dane Lawrence (59 runs in 37 balls) and James Neesham (30 runs in 22 balls). Only 7 runs came in this over.

Interesting final over, 5 wickets in 9 balls

Now Essex needed 9 runs off the last 6 balls and they had 5 wickets left. But there were two new batsmen playing on the pitch, who had just entered the field. Daryl Mitchell, 30, who has played 15 international T20s for New Zealand, came to bowl the last over. This bowler took wickets in the first two balls of the last over. First Paul Walter (1 run) was caught out and on the very next ball Ryan ten Duschate (0) was also caught behind the wicket. On the third ball, the new batsman Neejar hit a four. But Mitchell also dismissed Neezer (4 runs) on the fourth ball. That is, 5 wickets had fallen in the last 9 balls. Now Essex had only 2 wickets left and they needed 5 runs to win.

Thriller of last two balls

Now Sam Cooke and Simon Harmer were batting between a barrage of wickets. Essex needed 5 more runs to win. Cook took 1 run on the fifth ball and gave strike to Harmer. Now 4 runs were needed from the last ball. The captain had put the fielders behind. But nothing worked. Harmer hit a four in a brilliant manner to give Essex a 2-wicket win. A win that seemed impossible in the last few balls.

Highest score at Lord’s

With this, Essex’s team, chasing a target of 184 runs, made the highest score of T20 cricket at Lord’s Cricket Ground, which until a few minutes ago, was in Middlesex’s name. Dan Lawrence was awarded the ‘Man of the Match’ award for his half-century.