The 2022 Vitality Blast was the twentieth edition of the

T20 Blast The T20 Blast, officially known as the Vitality Blast for sponsorship reasons, is a professional Twenty20 cricket league in England and Wales. The competition was established by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) in 2003. T20 Blast is t ...

(currently known as the

Vitality Blast The T20 Blast, officially known as the Vitality Blast for sponsorship reasons, is a professional Twenty20 cricket league in England and Wales. The competition was established by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) in 2003. T20 Blast is t ...

), a professional

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

league played in England and Wales. The tournament was held from 25 May to 16 July 2022. The tournament was run by the

England and Wales Cricket Board The England and Wales Cricket Board, aka ECB, is the Sports governing body, 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 ...

(ECB), was branded as the Vitality Blast due to the tournament's sponsorship reason. The Kent Spitfires were the defending champions, having won their second title during previous season. On 20 January 2022, the ECB announced the fixtures for the tournament. On 17 June 2022, in the North Group match between the Birmingham Bears and the Notts Outlaws, the Birmingham Bears set a new record for the highest total in an English T20 match, with 261/2. Four days later,

Surrey Surrey () is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Greater London to the northeast, Kent to the east, East Sussex, East and West Sussex to the south, and Hampshire and Berkshire to the wes ...

became the first team to qualify for the quarter-finals, with their ninth win out of ten games. Following the conclusion of matches played on 1 July 2022,

Somerset Somerset ( , ), Archaism, archaically Somersetshire ( , , ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South West England. It is bordered by the Bristol Channel, Gloucestershire, and Bristol to the north, Wiltshire to the east ...

, the Essex Eagles, and the Hampshire Hawks from the South Group had all confirmed their places in the quarter-finals. The Birmingham Bears also qualified, after winning the North Group. The Derbyshire Falcons and the Lancashire Lightning also qualified from the North Group, with the Yorkshire Vikings taking the final place in the quarter-finals. The Yorkshire Vikings, the Hampshire Hawks, Lancashire Lightning and Somerset all won their quarter-final matches to secure their places at Finals Day. In Somerset's match, against the Derbyshire Falcons, Somerset set a new record for the highest team total in an English T20 match, with 265/5, breaking the record set earlier in the tournament by the Birmingham Bears. In the final, the Hampshire Hawks beat Lancashire Lightning by one run to win their third title.

Format

Playing format were similar to the previous season, where groups remain the same with the familiar North and South split, while each county will play 14 group-stage matches, seven at home and seven away.

Teams

The teams were divided into the following groups: * North Group: Birmingham Bears, Derbyshire Falcons, Durham, Lancashire Lightning, Leicestershire Foxes, Northants Steelbacks, Notts Outlaws, Worcestershire Rapids, Yorkshire Vikings * South Group: Essex Eagles,

Glamorgan Glamorgan (), or sometimes Glamorganshire ( or ), was Historic counties of Wales, one of the thirteen counties of Wales that existed from 1536 until their abolishment in 1974. It is located in the South Wales, south of Wales. Originally an ea ...

Gloucestershire Gloucestershire ( , ; abbreviated Glos.) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South West England. It is bordered by Herefordshire to the north-west, Worcestershire to the north, Warwickshire to the north-east, Oxfordshire ...

, Hampshire Hawks, Kent Spitfires,

Middlesex Middlesex (; abbreviation: Middx) is a Historic counties of England, former county in South East England, now mainly within Greater London. Its boundaries largely followed three rivers: the River Thames, Thames in the south, the River Lea, Le ...

, Sussex Sharks

Results and standings

North Group

Advanced to the

quarter-finals A single-elimination knockout, or sudden-death tournament is a type of elimination tournament where the loser of a match-up is immediately eliminated from the tournament. Each winner will play another in the next round, until the final match-up, w ...

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South Group

Advanced to the

Knock-out stage

The ECB confirmed the following fixtures for the knock-out stage of the tournament.

Quarter-finals

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Finals Day

Semi-finals

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Final

References

External links

Series home at ESPN Cricinfo
{{Domestic Twenty20 cricket in England 2022 in English cricket T20 Blast seasons Domestic cricket competitions in 2022