The Vitality Blast is back! And it’s everything, everywhere, all at once!
Somerset and Surrey look strong amongst the pace-setters, but keep an eye on Yorkshire and Kent
Ball one: Blast off!
Remember “Event Cricket” for which you had to make “An Appointment To View”? If not in the first season of Twenty20 in 2003, such phrases were doing the rounds a year later when the bug had truly bitten and the genie was out of the bottle.
The latest iteration of the Vitality Blast Men 2026 began on Friday and, by Monday evening, 17 matches had already been played and three tables (BBC) or four tables (ESPNCricinfo) are already just a click away.
Somebody must think this is a good idea.
Ball two: Saffers suffocate bears
Long ago, I decided to watch T20 for the spectacle and enjoy the one thing it unequivocally gets right – Finals Day. This year, the women will play at the Kia Oval on Friday 17 July and the men at EdgBlaston (oh yes) on Saturday 18 July. Despite that cringingly try-hard renaming, it’s always a great day out in Birmingham. But will the locals be at their own party?
The Warwickshire Bears (not Birmingham Bears any more – do keep up!) have started with two defeats, which isn’t good whether in three tables or four. They must have felt optimistic having bowled out Gloucestershire at Bristol for a meagre 121, old pros Oliver Hannon-Dalby and Chris Woakes knocking the top off the innings before teenager, Tazeem Ali and Pakistan’s Usman Tariq went through the slow bowlers’ box of tricks to leave the Bears sitting pretty at the break.
There was no answer to the home side’s big South African pacers, Duan Jansen (twin brother of Marco) and the still formidable Marchant de Lange, reducing the Bears to pussycats, with no way back from 48-6.
Just 30.5 overs were required for the match – home before the porridge got cold.
Ball three: Rews bounce Hampshire to sorry defeat
The champions, Somerset, have started their defence with a 100% record, first walloping Hampshire at home and then seeing off the hapless Bears at er.. EdgBlaston.
James Vince was welcomed back to Hampshire’s colours and delivered a fluent fifty, but the return of the favourite son couldn’t turn round his county’s miserable season, 158 seldom enough at Taunton.
Cue Will Smeed, back in his happy place teeing off in white ball after a tricky start in the Championship. By the time he was out (four sixes and six fours), the home side had 96 at better than 10 an over and the Rew brothers finished off the job with plenty to spare.
Somerset may lack spin options, but, such is their firepower and experience, they’ll be favourites for any chase under 200, maybe even 220 at home.
Ball four: Ali and Ali deliver knockout blows
A new season in the Blast always brings a surprise or two as franchise cricketers turn up in unexpected places. So was that the Moeen Ali hitting five sixes as Yorkshire chased down a tricky 194 posted by Derbyshire? It surely was.
When Dom Bess was out in the 16th over, the Headingley crowd must have thought their new star recruit’s efforts were in vain, 56 needed off 27 balls, with just one wicket in hand. But Andrew Tye and Hasan Ali are seasoned international cricketers and, with nothing to lose, out came the long handle and off went the ball like it was 1981 vs Australia. The two bowlers returned to the pavilion to ask the batters what the problem was, the points secured with four balls in hand.
Yorkshire have two wins from two alongside Durham – and the wind in their sails.
Ball five: Sam Curran and other three dimensional cricketers
Surrey needed to make something happen in The Blast, their red ball cricket too often hesitant – not an option in this format. Having seen off Lancashire comfortably in the opener, they crossed the Thames for the derby at Lord’s – a match that always meets the criteria to be described as event cricket. It almost always ends with a Surrey win too, not unexpectedly given the imbalance of financial resources between the neighbours.
At 56-4 chasing 144, the home side must have been smelling blood and a morale boosting upset, but Sam Curran is a batting all-rounder these days and he found a partner in the much travelled South Londoner, Laurie Evans, and they cruised over the line in the 19th over.
It would be harsh to call players like the Curran brothers (Tom had been the key man against Lancashire) bits-and-pieces merchants, but having such players, who need not be as classy as them, in an XI, gives a captain multiple routes to a victory. Expect to see more players delivering little spells of two overs of 14 runs and handy 30s from number nine as the season progresses.
Ball six: Crawley edges forward
It’s Kent who sit next to Surrey at the top of the South Group with two wins from two. The second came in a fine chase against Sussex, the target of 199 secured with ten balls to spare.
They were steered home by an undefeated 75 from Zak Crawley, his first half-century of a summer that has seen him lose his England place.
Of course, his position in the Test XI had become untenable and his connections and privileged background can make him a difficult figure with whom to sympathise. That said, on a human level, it must have been a very difficult five months for a player who is still only 28, so I can join some, but not all cricket fans I suspect, in hoping this innings marks the start of a long road back to form for a mercurial talent.