T20 Blast Betting

Vitality T20 Blast - 2020 Tournament Preview

After months of uncertainty, we are now about to get the Vitality Blast 2020 underway. This is one of the most unique T20 competitions in the world. It runs over a period of months, mostly on the weekends, and runs alongside the other county matches.

As a result, players can keep coming in and out of the tournament as their availability changes. The sheer number of teams makes this very exciting with 18 teams taking part in the T20 Blast 2020.

The teams have been divided into three groups: The North Group, The Central Group, and the South Group. This is a first for the tournament as there have only been two groups up until now.

Vitality T20 Blast 2020 Tournament Preview

North Group

1. Derbyshire Falcons Durham
2. Lancashire Lightning
3. Leicestershire Foxes
4. Nottinghamshire Outlaws
5. Yorkshire Vikings

Central Group

1. Birmingham Bears
2. Glamorgan
3. Gloucestershire
4. Northamptonshire Steelbacks
5. Somerset
6. Worcestershire Rapids

South Group

1. Essex Eagles
2. Hampshire
3. Kent Spitfires
4. Middlesex
5. Surrey
6. Sussex Sharks

Teams are going to without most of their overseas players as the T20 Blast is being played under a COVID-19 cloud. Most of the counties are going to have to depend on their own home-grown players to provide the thrust needed to win this tournament.

There are going to eight teams that make the quarter-finals.

Vitality T20 Blast 2020 Playoff Stage Predictions

Here are the teams that we think will be competing in the playoffs this season: 

1. Lancashire Lightning
2. Durham
3. Surrey
4. Sussex Sharks
5. Somerset
6. Worcestershire Rapids
7. Essex Eagles
8. Hampshire

Vitality T20 Blast 2020 Winner

Sussex Sharks

One of the strongest sides of the South Group, the Sussex Sharks have a fantastic amount of depth in their side. They have Philip Salt to lead the batting with support from Laurie Evans and Delray Rawlins. 

Jofra Archer may become available to them towards the end of the season, something that will be a huge plus and make an already strong bowling side stronger. Chris Jordan, Tmyal Mills, and Luke Wright are also a part of the Sussex squad giving it a lot of experience to call upon.

The batting is a bit thin especially now that the overseas players may not be able to come but that is going to be true for every team. The quality bowling attack will ensure that Sussex remains in the running no matter who comes up against it. 

T20 Blast Format

The T20 Blast is a cricket league that takes place across England and Wales. It is run by the ECB and it was created as a replacement for FriendsLife T20, set to become the main domestic T20 competition in England and Wales.

The T20 Blast involves 18 first-class cricket teams, all of which represent counties in England and in Wales. These clubs are split into two divisions, North and South, with 9 teams in each. It begins with a group stage, whereby each team plays home and away games against 6 other teams in their group, and then single games against the remaining two teams.

Two points are awarded for a win in this stage of the competition and 1 point is awarded for a tie or for an abandoned match. As is usually the case, points are very important here and all teams are encouraged to rack up those runs. That’s because once points are taken into account, then the run rate is calculated. So, any teams that end up on the same points will be split depending on their run rate. Because of the structure and the way the points are awarded, this is actually quite common and means that teams usually emphasize attack.

T20 Blast History

The T20 Blast was announced in 2013 and the first season took place a year later in 2014. This cup goes back a little further than that though. It was the FriendsLife T20 from 2010 to 2014 and prior to that, all of the way back to 2003, it was simply the Twenty20 Cup. NatWest took over the sponsorship from 2015 until 2017, where Vitality took over in 2018 and has named it the Vitality Blast.

In fact, back when it was the Twenty20 Cup it was known for being one of the most exciting and the most diverse domestic competitions in European cricket. In the first 7 years of the tournament, before it became sponsored by FriendsLife, there were a total of 6 different winners.

This diversity has not continued in the most recent iterations of the competition, but it has remained an exciting, entertaining tournament that has given fans of English and Welsh cricket plenty to shout about.

Speaking of which, although it is a competition for teams from England and Wales, there is a clear shift toward English teams with very few Welsh teams involved. In fact, in the modern day there is only Glamorgan from Cardiff competiting to represent Wales.

Best Teams and Records

This is an annual competition, so the history books are constantly being rewritten. However, the Leicestershire Foxes were one of the most successful teams early on, being the first team to make it to a total of 3 wins. They played in the Northern League, which is where many of the better teams have played over the years.

The Northamptonshire Steelbacks, who won two titles early on, also played in the northern section, while Hampshire have been one of the more successful teams to come out of the Southern section.

T20 Blast Finals Day

One of the things that has helped to make T20 Blast a standout competition with the fans is the commitment to offering something different. Finals Day has been a major player in this and is one of the most exciting days in domestic cricket, no matter where you are in the world.

On Finals Day the semi-final and the final are played on the same day, on the same ground and right after one another. The speed of the T20 format allows for this to happen and means that the fans visiting the ground get a full day’s worth of cricket as they potentially watch their team progress from the semi and to the final, before winning it all. This is a spectacle that you don’t get in cricket often and one that is only ever replicated in full-weekend competitions like the Rugby 7s.