T20 Final blast: Will Smied takes Somerset to the Hampshire victory

Somerset can now proudly claim to be the team to beat in T20 cricket in England after having made three finals in a row, winning two.

After their victory in 2023 over Essex, it was another story last season because they underwent a battery of eight counters in the hands of the Gloucestershire.

They seemed to have trouble following the required execution rate of almost 10 a time before Smied and Dickson turned the game with a stand in the fourth window of 88.

Smied and Tom Kohler-Cadmore, who made it an exceptional 81 in their victory in the semi-finals against the Lancashire, had taken Somerset at a lightning start, bringing them to 46-0 in the fifth when Kohler-Cadmore was turned upside down by the Yorker Rapid by Sonny Baker.

One day when 44 six was struck, Kohler-Cadmore struck the greatest of them when he slipped Chris Wood to the Eric Hollies stand.

But a few letters later, he left as a young English Paceman Baker made him a kit with a beauty of 88 mph.

At 89-3 in the 10th, the match was in balance, but Smied continued to find limits, hitting 14 four and six in total.

Perhaps the crucial moment came in the 14th in the end when Scott Currie dropped Dickson on the border with the execution rate required above 12 and more.

SMIED chipped Currie to James Vince on the longtime border six of less than a century deserved to give hope to Hampshire before Gregory finished it with the same with a four and a few of six legs.

“The ball seems to fly here, especially under the lights and the dew is coming, so we have always known that we had a chance,” SMIED told BBC Radio 5 Extra.

“It was an appropriate strike from Lewis [Gregory] at the end too.

“The guys were incredible throughout the competition, different people got up in different games.

“I think it’s probably our strength, we have winners of match one at 11 and if it’s someone’s day, they can make us go through the line.”