Finally, it's razzle-dazzle

Excitement finally rained down on the English T20 championship, at the Rosebowl, Hampshire.

The inventors of the game and, indeed, this format of the game, have failed so far to reach the dizzy heights attained in India.

The English Cricket Board's efforts to milk this cash cow saw them attempt to adopt a similar extended version to the IPL and ensured that, in the group stages alone, each side had to play a staggering 16 matches each, leading to 148 in total.

Needless to say, attendances have been down and there have been complaints about the diminished quality on offer, despite clubs paying phenomenal wages to overseas players as they attempted to win the £200,000 (BD117,547) first prize.

Some of the disgruntled comments come from the players, who would prefer this high-profile finale to finish at the home of cricket, Lords. This was, of course, not helped by the ECB`s fall-out with the IPL resulting in the champions of this year's title not being invited to the Champions League (world final) in South Africa in September, ensuring they miss out on the ultimate prize.

The run-in to this season's final has been dominated by discussion about the players, rather than the teams.

Kevin Pieterson was made available by England to play for his adopted county, Hampshire, who were hosting the event.

However, despite losing their England opener Michael Lumb to a broken foot sustained while playing against their opponents in the final, Somerset, they refused to pick Pieterson.

Ironically, Pieterson shot himself in the foot by declaring that he did not want to play for Hampshire next season as he would prefer to play his cricket in London.

Hampshire stuck with the squad that had got them to the final.

Another player hitting the headlines was West Indian Dwayne Bravo, who was paid a reported £8,000 (BD4,702) to appear for Essex in the finals, despite never having played for them before.

Essex justified the massive fee stating that Bravo was worth the money, being one of the world's leading T20 cricketers.

They also managed to secure the services of Danish Kaneria from Pakistan, who were probably relieved to have a more positive reason for removing him from their squad than relying on his performances to do the talking.

In the meantime, Nottinghamshire adopted a contrasting approach to Hampshire by welcoming back their English stars Graeme Swann and Stuart Broad.

Manager Mick Newell explained that it is always his preference to put out the strongest line-up available to him and the replaced players understood this. The opportunity to add two world cup winners was an opportunity he was unable to resist.

The first semi-final pitted Essex against Hampshire. Essex started well with former captain Mark Pettini and England's troubled opener Alistair Cook dominating the Hampshire attack, sharing an opening stand of 79.

However, the introduction of Hampshire's excellent spinner Danny Briggs saw the heart ripped out of the Essex top order.

They failed to regain their earlier momentum and ended on 156, including a feeble run-out of the jet-setting Bravo who must have been running with his bulging wallet still in his pocket he was so slow.

Hampshire responded with an excellent opening stand, relying on the evergreen Pakistani Abdul Razzaq who hit a solid 44 off only 31 deliveries.

They paced their innings well and were generally up with the pace, Michael Carberry hitting the winning runs as the rain poured down.

The second semi-final started explosively as Dirk Nannes, representing Nottinghamshire, rattled retired England opener Marcus Trescothick on the helmet with his first ball.

Trescothick, however, remained unphased and took the attack to the much-vaunted Notts seamers, smashing a superb 60 runs off only 28 balls.

It took a wonderful delivery from Swann who, as if he were on the river, cast his lure making Trescothick leap from safety before ripping the bait away, leaving the batsman high and dry. Somerset, however, were not finished, with young Jos Buttler smashing the bowlers, Broad in particular, to all corners with 55 runs to leave last season's losing finalists on 182.

Facing such a daunting total, Notts gambled by thrusting Swann into the opener's position. Despite one huge six, he fell early. Notts largely were in touch although kept stalling with the fall of regular wickets, until Samit Patel and David Hussey were at the crease. Patel was in good touch, hitting three sixes, the most of any player in the finals.

However, with the Rosebowl steadily filling with rain, hampering Notts' chase with water gathering on the outfield, both sides were keeping an eye on the appropriately named Duckworth and Lewis calculations.

With Notts still confident of success, a match-winning catch from Pollard, timing his leap to perfection on the long-on boundary to remove Patel as he went for his fourth maximum, turned the match in Somerset's favour.

When the players were removed a few balls later, Somerset had won by only three runs.

In an intriguing final pitting this season's leading wicket-taker (Alfonso Thomas of Somerset) against the leading run-scorer (Jimmy Adams of Hampshire), Somerset won the toss and invited the local rivals to bowl first.

Preferring to get runs on the board they again started well with Trescothick hitting two sixes in a short eight-ball innings.

However, this time it was opening-partner Kieswetter who sustained the assault, hitting 71. After his departure, it was Kieron Pollard who did the most damage with 22 off only seven balls before he was forced to retire hurt in the final over, leaving Somerset on 173-6 from their allotted overs.

Hampshire again started well with Razzaq to the fore (and six) although it was the ever-reliant and consistent middle order paring of McKenzie and Irving who built the majority of their total, adding 79 runs in a little over seven overs.

Needing only 10 to win from the final two overs it was the return of the previously expensive Philips who turned the tide against Hampshire, taking two wickets and conceding only two runs.

Now needing eight, Somerset turned to De Bruyn for the final over. Having conceded at 12-per over earlier in the innings, he allowed new batsman Christian a single off the first ball, bringing the canny Sean Ervine on strike.

However, De Bruyn mixed his deliveries, keeping the batsmen guessing.

Hampshire needed two to win off the last ball, with Christian back on strike. He could only manage a leg-bye leaving the scores tied yet this allowed Hampshire the victory their home support demanded, winning by virtue of losing fewer wickets.

A tournament that has failed to enthral home supporters and missed the razzamataz of the IPL, finished in the most dramatic of circumstances and was won by Hampshire who, as fate would have it, have developed ties with the Rajastan Royals of India!