Hampshire hold nerve with last ball to beat Lancashire in T20 Blast final

Cricket analysts have quantified just about every metric in the game. Bar one. The single variable they haven’t been able to put a number to is the incalculable phenomena called momentum.

It moved like an invisible wave across this Vitality Blast final. It undulated this way and that before settling with Hampshire, who roared back from the depths to claim a remarkable one-run victory on the final ball of the match.

Momentum started with Lancashire as the pace of Richard Gleeson and Luke Wood, delivered from their right and left arms respectively, left Hampshire stuttering on 15 for two. Gleeson may have claimed the scalps of Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma and Rishabh Pant in his international debut this month, but he surely hasn’t bowled a better ball than the ripper from a good length that knocked over James Vince.

Then momentum titled towards Hampshire once Ben McDermott started finding the fence in his knock of 62 off 36 balls. But momentum is fickle and it shifted once more when Matt Parkinson claimed four for 26 to restrict Hampshire to 152 for eight. On a pitch that was becoming increasingly difficult to bat on, the stocky wrist spinner found grip and turn with the odd one skidding on.

It was Parkinson who bowled McDermott in the 12th over as Lancashire were able to tighten the screw. That Hampshire reached their tally was a consequence of Ross Whitely’s 22 and Chris Wood’s 21 not out batting at nine.

Their score never looked like it would be enough, especially when Keaton Jennings and Steven Croft were in full control in their chase at 72 for two inside eight overs. Jennings, player of the match in the semi-finals against Yorkshire for his 75 off 51, and fresh from his 318 in the County Championship this week, once