Vitality Blast Final - no ball - sportstiger

Picture Credit: Twitter

The Hampshire Hawks defeated the Lancashire Lightning by 1 run to claim the Vitality Blast 2022 title after the last-ball drama in the final at Edgbaston late last night. Hampshire players started celebrating the win accompanied by the fireworks before noticing the umpire's signal of no-ball.

By winning the Vitality Blast title, Hampshire claimed their third title and matched Leicestershire’s record for the most T20 league titles in England.

During the Vitality Blast final, Hawks' bowler Nathan Ellis bowled Lightning's Richard Gleeson when the latter side required five runs on the last ball to win the match. As soon as Ellis took the wicket, the whole team started celebrating the win and the fireworks went off before realizing it was an unfair delivery as the bowler stepped ahead of the white line.

The celebrations stopped instantly as the umpire signaled a no-ball which left Lancashire with a free hit and just two runs needed to win. However, Nathan Ellis maintained his composure and bowled a slower-one that went directly to the wicketkeeper. Gleeson's swing and miss rewarded them with two byes amid more confusion but that was not enough to win the game as they required four runs to win.

Watch the epic scenes from Vitality Blast 2022 final:

Earlier, Ben McDermott played a striking innings of 62 off 36 balls to help their team reach a total of 152 for eight as Matt Parkinson claimed 4/26. While chasing the target Lancashire looked confident and eager to end the match quickly as they were on 72 in the eighth over with a loss of just one wicket. However, Hawks spinners Liam Dawson (2/23) and Mason Crane (1/19) restricted the run-rate in the middle overs.