Vitality Blast 2019: Essex claim maiden title

Vitality Blast 2019 finally comes to an end after two months as Simon Harmer leads his team Essex to their maiden title win.

The final saw Riki Wessels (31 off 34), Moeen Ali (32 off 26), and Wayne Parnell and Daryl Mitchell with 19 each working hard to put a total of 145/9 for Worcestershire. It was a hard work to accumulate runs on a dry pitch. Simron Harmer turned things around for Essex with the ball when Moeen Ali and Riki Wessels were looking set and strong in the middle. With 61/1 on the Harmer gave the first breakthrough and then ran through the middle order. He took the wickets of Moeen Ali, Ben Cox, and Wayne Parnell to make things tougher for Worcestershire. Ravi Bopara and Dan Lawrence took two wickets apiece.

In reply, Essex lost Cameron Delport early with just nine runs on the board.  Tom Westley held the innings in good shape with his 36 off 31. However, they kept losing wickets at regular intervals. Apart from Wetley no batsman from the top order could hang around to carry the innings.  Adam Wheater’s run-a-ball 15 and Dan Lawrence’s 18-ball 23 were obviously not enough. Then, eventually, Ravi Bopara changed the scenario by scoring an unbeaten 36 from 22 balls. After a support from Paul Walter (14), it was once again the skipper, Harmer who came at rescue. Essex were 129/6 in 18.4 overs when Harmer joined Bopara and played a magnificent 7-ball 18* to seal a victory off last ball for his team.

Most runs

Most wickets

Best innings

Best bowling figure