t is not quite the Chicago Cubs and the World Series, but Surrey’s Vitality Blast drought is one of domestic cricket’s peculiarities.
How is it that a club with such a ready production line of white-ball talent, one that prides itself on its showpiece nights under the lights at the Kia Oval, has gone 20 years, since the competition’s inaugural edition, without winning it?
In the squad that Gareth Batty leads into Saturday’s Finals Day, there are five players — Sunil Narine, Jason Roy, Chris Jordan and brothers Sam and Tom Curran — that have World Cup winners’ medals, but none who have triumphed in this particular tournament.
To some extent, Surrey have been victims of their own success on that front, often losing key players to international call-ups when the competition hits crunch time, as was the case last year, when a number of England stars sat out the one-run quarter-final defeat by Yorkshire after they had been the dominant force in the group stage.
As soon as this summer’s rejigged schedule was announced, then, with England’s white-ball internationals backloaded to give the Ashes pride of place, Surrey’s players quietly identified an opportunity not to be missed.
“We haven’t specifically said that, because you never want to put that pressure on yourself,” England batter Will Jacks told Standard Sport on the eve of the new campaign. “But I think we all feel that. I know I’m thinking it inside.”
The reigning county champions are now two T20 games from bringing that plan to fruition, with Somerset up first in tomorrow’s semi-final and then either Essex or Hampshire lying in wait beyond that.
Surrey have their big stars available – a rarity for them at this stage
/ Getty Images for Surrey CCCUnlike 12 months ago, Surrey did not career through the group stage, in fact losing their final three matches to leave a daunting quarter-final trip to Lancashire, which they came through by 13 runs last week.
Laurie Evans scored a match-defining 70 in that contest to join opening partner Jacks in romping well past 500 runs for the season and that pair have been outstanding all year in covering for the injured Roy, who is back and made his first half-century of the campaign batting at No3 at Old Trafford.
While Surrey’s top order have fired, their major strength, as in last season’s County Championship triumph, has been a side packed with high-class all-rounders. Sam Curran has been predictably productive, with almost 400 runs and 15 wickets, while Narine has a team-leading 20 scalps and more than 200 runs to boot. Even Australian bowler Sean Abbott, hardly renowned for his batting, produced one of the innings of the tournament when hammering the joint-fastest ever Blast hundred off just 34 balls in the group stage against Kent.
It is Somerset, however, that go into tomorrow’s last-four clash as favourites, having topped the South Group and looked the Blast’s outstanding side. A destructive top order is firing on all cylinders, Tom Banton back to form and one of three players, alongside Will Smeed and Tom Kohler-Cadmore, past 400 runs, while Ben Green leads the competition’s wicket charts with 27.
Defending champions Hampshire get Finals day under way, looking to repeat last year’s dramatic success. The Hawks are led by James Vince, a serial winner when it comes to these tournaments, who is the Blast’s leading run-scorer.
They meet an Essex side who sprung a major upset to see off the North’s top-seeded Birmingham Bears in their quarter-final and are buoyed by the availability of Dan Lawrence, in rude form as he continues to wait on the fringes of England’s Test side.
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