The 2020 Vitality Blast was the 2020 season of the

t20 Blast The T20 Blast, currently named the Vitality Blast for sponsorship reasons, is a professional Twenty20 cricket competition for English and Welsh first-class counties. The competition was established by the England and Wales Cricket Board (E ...

, a professional

Twenty20 cricket Twenty20 (T20) is a shortened game format of cricket. At the professional level, it was introduced by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) in 2003 for the inter-county competition. In a Twenty20 game, the two teams have a single innin ...

league being played in England and Wales. It was the third season in which the domestic T20 competition, run by the

England and Wales Cricket Board The England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) is the national governing body of cricket in England and Wales. It was formed on 1 January 1997 as a single governing body to combine the roles formerly fulfilled by the Test and County Cricket Board, ...

(ECB), which was branded as the Vitality Blast due to the tournament's sponsorship deal. On 12 August 2020, following a delay due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identi ...

, the ECB confirmed the fixtures for the tournament. In the North Group, the Notts Outlaws and Lancashire Lightning qualified for the quarter-finals. In the Central Group,

Gloucestershire Gloucestershire ( abbreviated Glos) is a county in South West England. The county comprises part of the Cotswold Hills, part of the flat fertile valley of the River Severn and the entire Forest of Dean. The county town is the city of Gl ...

became the first team to qualify. The South Group saw Surrey and Kent Spitfires qualify. Following the conclusion of the group stage, the Northants Steelbacks, the Leicestershire Foxes and the Sussex Sharks had also confirmed their spots in the quarter-finals. Surrey, Lancashire Lightning and Gloucestershire all won their quarter-final matches to progress to Finals Day. The match between the Leicestershire Foxes and the Notts Outlaws finished in a tie. The Notts Outlaws advanced to Finals Day after they had scored more runs in the powerplay. For the first time in the tournament's history, Finals Day was washed out, with all the matches rescheduled to played on 4 October 2020, the designated reserve day. If no play was possible on the reserve day, the ECB announced that the matches would have been played on 7 October 2020. Play was delayed further on the reserve day due to rain, and as a result the two semi-finals were reduced to 11 overs per side, and the final was shortened to 16 overs per side. Surrey beat Gloucestershire by six wickets in the first semi-final, and the Notts Outlaws beat Lancashire Lightning by five wickets in the second semi-final. In the final, the Notts Outlaws beat Surrey by six wickets to win the tournament and their second domestic T20 title.

Background

The tournament was scheduled to start on 28 May 2020, and finish on 5 September 2020. However, on 24 April 2020, due to the

, the

(ECB) confirmed that no professional cricket would be played in England before 1 July 2020. In late May 2020, the ECB looked at the scheduling of domestic cricket for the summer, with the t20 Blast likely to go ahead, including the traditional Final's Day at

Edgbaston Edgbaston () is an affluent suburban area of central Birmingham, England, historically in Warwickshire, and curved around the southwest of the city centre. In the 19th century, the area was under the control of the Gough-Calthorpe family a ...

. The ECB also confirmed that no domestic cricket would be played before 1 August 2020. On 29 June 2020, the ECB confirmed that the county cricket season would begin on 1 August 2020, with the format agreed in early July. On 7 July 2020, the majority of counties voted to start the tournament on 27 August 2020, with Finals Day taking place at

on 3 October 2020.

Teams

The teams were placed into the following groups. The top two teams in each group progressed to the quarter-finals, where they were joined by the two best third-placed teams: * North Group: Derbyshire Falcons,

Durham Durham most commonly refers to: *Durham, England, a cathedral city and the county town of County Durham *County Durham, an English county * Durham County, North Carolina, a county in North Carolina, United States *Durham, North Carolina, a city in N ...

, Lancashire Lightning, Leicestershire Foxes, Notts Outlaws, Yorkshire Vikings * Central Group: Birmingham Bears, Glamorgan,

, Northants Steelbacks,

Somerset ( en, All The People of Somerset) , locator_map = , coordinates = , region = South West England , established_date = Ancient , established_by = , preceded_by = , origin = , lord_lieutenant_office =Lord Lieutenant of Somerset , lord_ ...

, Worcestershire Rapids * South Group: Essex Eagles,

Hampshire Hampshire (, ; abbreviated to Hants) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in western South East England on the coast of the English Channel. Home to two major English cities on its south coast, Southampton and Portsmouth, Hampshire ...

, Kent Spitfires,

Middlesex Middlesex (; abbreviation: Middx) is a historic county in southeast England. Its area is almost entirely within the wider urbanised area of London and mostly within the ceremonial county of Greater London, with small sections in neighbour ...

, Surrey, Sussex Sharks

Fixtures

North Group

---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ----

Central Group

---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ----

South Group

---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- * ''Surrey's score of 218 was a record high total for a T20 match at Lord's'' ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ----

Standings

Central Group

North Group

South Group

Knock-out stage

Quarter-Finals

---- ---- ----

Finals Day

Semi-Finals

----

Final

References

External links

Series home at ESPN Cricinfo
{{2020 English cricket season

T20 Blast The T20 Blast, currently named the Vitality Blast for sponsorship reasons, is a professional Twenty20 cricket competition for English and Welsh first-class counties. The competition was established by the England and Wales Cricket Board (E ...