The 2021 Vitality Blast was the 2021 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 played in England and Wales. It was the fourth 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), that was branded as the Vitality Blast due to the tournament's sponsorship deal. The Notts Outlaws were the defending champions. In June 2021,

Samit Patel Samit Rohit Patel (born 30 November 1984) is an English cricketer. A right-handed batsman and a slow left-arm bowler, he plays first-class cricket for Nottinghamshire County Cricket Club. Patel made his One Day International debut for England ...

, playing for the Notts Outlaws, became the first English player to do the double in T20 cricket of taking 250 wickets and scoring 5,000 runs. In July 2021,

Derbyshire Derbyshire ( ) is a ceremonial county in the East Midlands, England. It includes much of the Peak District National Park, the southern end of the Pennine range of hills and part of the National Forest. It borders Greater Manchester to the nor ...

's match against

Essex Essex () is a county in the East of England. One of the home counties, it borders Suffolk and Cambridgeshire to the north, the North Sea to the east, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent across the estuary of the River Thames to the south, and Grea ...

in the 2021 County Championship was abandoned before the start of day two due to a positive

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was identified in Wuhan, China, in December 2019. The disease quickly ...

case in the squad. As a result, Derbyshire's final two T20 Blast group-stage games, against the Northants Steelbacks and the Yorkshire Vikings, were also cancelled. Therefore, the North Group qualifications were decided based on an average points per completed match basis. Following matches completed on 9 July 2021, the Notts Outlaws were the first team to qualify from the North Group for the quarter-finals. On the same day, they were joined by the Kent Spitfires from the South Group. After the matches completed on 16 July 2021, the Yorkshire Vikings from the North Group had qualified, along with

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_ ...

from the South Group. On 17 July 2021, Lancashire Lightning won the

Roses Match The Roses Match refers to any game of cricket played between Yorkshire County Cricket Club and Lancashire County Cricket Club. Yorkshire's emblem is the white rose, while Lancashire's is the red rose. The associations go back to the Wars of the R ...

against the Yorkshire Vikings to qualify from the North Group. On the final day of group stage matches, the Birmingham Bears from the North Group, and the Sussex Sharks and the Hampshire Hawks from the South Group had all qualified for the quarter-finals. In the first quarter-final match, the Sussex Sharks beat the Yorkshire Vikings to become the first team to reach Finals Day. The Hampshire Hawks reached the Finals Day, after they knocked out defending champions the Notts Outlaws in the second quarter-final match. Somerset became the third team to reach Finals Day, after they defeated the Lancashire Lightning in their quarter-final match. In the last quarter-final match, the Kent Spitfires beat the Birmingham Bears to progress to the Finals Day. It was the first time in the tournament's history that all the teams taking part in Finals Day had come from the South Group. On Finals Day, Somerset beat Hampshire Hawks by two wickets in the first semi-final to advance into the

final Final, Finals or The Final may refer to: * Final (competition), the last or championship round of a sporting competition, match, game, or other contest which decides a winner for an event ** Another term for playoffs, describing a sequence of con ...

. In the second semi-final, Kent Spitfires beat the Sussex Sharks by 21 runs to advance. It was the first time that Kent had reached the domestic T20 final since the 2008 tournament. In the final, the Kent Spitfires beat Somerset by 25 runs to win the tournament and their second domestic T20 title.

Format

Each county played seven matches at home, and seven matches away, with the top four counties in each group progressing to the

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

. The top two ranked counties from each group will host the Quarter-finals, to play against the lower-seeded team in other group.

Teams

The teams were placed into the following groups: * North Group: Birmingham Bears, 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, Northants Steelbacks, Notts Outlaws, Worcestershire Rapids, Yorkshire Vikings * South Group: Essex Eagles, Glamorgan,

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 ...

, Hampshire Hawks, 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

North Group

Source:

South Group

Source:

North Group

Source:

June

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July

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South Group

Source:

June

July

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Standings

North Group

advances to

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

South Group

advances to

Knock-out stage

Quarter-finals

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

Finals Day

Semi-finals

----

Final

Notes

References

External links

Series home at ESPN Cricinfo
{{Domestic Twenty20 cricket in England 2021 in English cricket