Ian Ward says it's time for Lancashire to put their demons to bed in the Twenty20 Cup.
Twenty20 Cup Finals Day 10.30am, Saturday, Sky Sports 1
It's that time of the season yet again. This is about as glitzy and razzmatazz as the glorious game gets! Yes, Twenty20 Finals Day is upon us. Despite the weather trying its worst to scupper the competition, we are down to the last four teams and we should look forward to some fantastic cricket on Saturday.
Lancashire v Gloucestershire
It's hard to put a handle on whether Lancashire are playing good Twenty20 cricket or not this season. Mark Chilton, the captain, said as much in an interview in the latter stages of the group stage.
Simply because of the amount of games that they've lost to the weather. Four of their eight matches were washed out yet they still made it through. It wasn't the usual qualification for the quarter-finals, put it that way.
Having said that Saj Mahmood has come back into the side and found some form with five wickets against Sri Lanka A. Freddie Flintoff will certainly be fit to bat, if not to bowl, so two big players have come back at the right time to bolster an already talented squad.
Lancashire Lightning have the likes of Brad Hodge, who is arguably the best batsman in Twenty20 history, and Mal Loye - we all know about his destructive batting in this all-action form of cricket. They also have the craft of Dominic Cork and Glen Chapple in the seam bowling department and Jimmy Anderson will be available also. And then they have the real trump card in Muttiah Muralitharen.
On paper they are a ferocious side, it's just whether they can make that step across the line, which they've not been able to do in the last three Twenty20 finals day's. I wouldn't go as far as to say that they are chokers, but there comes a time when they have really got to close the deal and they haven't done that in the last few years.
In their way are a Gloucestershire side that are on good form and although they haven't had success of late in terms of silverware, they still have the ethos and game plans that they had under Mark Alleyne's captaincy when they won so many one-day competitions.
Steve Adshed, the wicketkeeper, has a big part to play. I recently interviewed Jack Russell at his Art gallery and we were talking about the blueprint that Gloucestershire had put together under John Bracewell and how they implemented their game plans. Jack said that he, himself, used to orchestrate: he was the master in charge of fielding. I know Alleyne sees fielding on a par with batting and bowling, so Adshed standing up to the stumps to Jon Lewis and Alex Gidman and generally keeping the troops on their toes will be key.
As will the captain himself, Lewis. He bowls with a lot of craft and guile which is needed in Twenty20. What their bowling attack lacks though is a genuine wicket taker. When you compare them with their semi-final opponents, Lancashire have Murali, Mahmood and Anderson but Gloucester only really have Lewis.
Craig Spearman will have to play well at the top of the order if Gloucester are to reach the final, but I think Lancashire will just about squeak through this one, simply because of the firepower they have on paper and even if they don't perform they have enough match winners that one of them should be able to get them across the line.
Kent v Sussex
Sussex have been awful in Twenty20 cricket until this year. It was quite bizarre for me going from the Surrey dressing room, where we had won the
