Men’s T20 Blast final day: Northants, Somerset, Hampshire and Notts to claim title

Final day record: Winners – 2005, 2023 and 2025

2026 Highest run-scorer: James Rew – 427

2026 top wicket taker: Daniel Sams – 19

Group Record: Seven wins, five losses – second in the Central and West groups

If there’s one thing Somerset has proven this summer, it’s that you can never stop them.

The defending champions have lost four of their opening six matches so there is considerable doubt over whether they can add to their run of 11 Finals Day appearances – the last five of them in a row.

Somerset fans need not worry – they have won five of their past six, including a monster victory over the group winners, and semi-final opponents, Northants, by a massive 105 on the road and seven wickets with five overs to spare at home.

It all seemed for naught as they slumped to 82-8 in the 15th over chasing 162 to beat Yorkshire at Headingley in Wednesday’s quarter-final.

Then all-rounder Craig Overton produced a brilliant T20 blast innings to help the defending champions pull off a surprise victory, scoring 79 off 30 balls, including three sixes in the final over where the visitors needed 22 runs to win.

It kept alive their hopes of making a fourth straight Blast final and becoming the first team to defend their crown.

Skipper Lewis Gregory hit two late sixes to help his side to a second title in three years against Hampshire last September, and ahead of the start of the campaign he told BBC Radio Somerset: “We’ve been incredibly consistent for five, six, seven years now.

“Then you get to the knockout games on finals day (and) one or two plays can win you a game. If you look back, we came very close to going three-three.

“It’s a very difficult format to be consistent and no one has defended it over 23 years so hopefully we can be the first this year.”