? Wicketkeeper delays retirement due to Champions League trip
? Leicestershire beat Somerset on rain-hit finals day
All summer Sachin Tendulkar has been chasing the fairy tale of his 100th international hundred to no avail. Yet lowly Leicestershire managed their fairy tale in one day, albeit the longest one in the cricketing calendar.
At 10pm on Saturday Matthew Hoggard held aloft the Twenty20 Trophy alongside the motley crew that make up his team. There was the world's tallest batsman (Will Jefferson), the smallest (James Taylor), a couple of creaking overseas players (Claude Henderson and Abdul Razzaq), a fearless local (Josh Cobb) and Paul Nixon, the irrepressible 40-year-old who will eventually keep his promise to retire.
Leicestershire defeated Somerset in the final by 18 runs in the only conventional game of cricket of the day. They set a modest target of 146, yet defended it with cunning and zeal against a Somerset side packed with big hitters.
Arguably the biggest hitter of them all, Kieron Pollard, was caught brilliantly behind the stumps by the diving Nixon for a single. From that moment Leicestershire believed that an unlikely victory was theirs. Cobb, a part-time off-spinner, kept persuading Somerset batsmen to hole out to mid-wicket, where the substitute fielder, Matthew Boyce, dropped nothing.
Afterwards Nixon confirmed his belief in fairy tales. "Thankfully today it was written in the stars. The timing was right, everything was right. Mr Pollard is a serious player. I was at Trent Bridge [for Somerset's quarter-final] when he hit one over the stand. I've never seen a six like it. So to catch him was a nice moment."
Nixon has spent 19 of his 22 years as a professional at Leicester (he played for Kent from 2000-2002): "I know all the Leicestershire players inside out, but I held Josh Cobb in my arms when he was born, which is scary. Luckily I didn't drop him." Luckily for Leicestershire he did not drop Pollard either. Now Nixon cannot retire properly until Leicestershire's Champions League expedition to India is over (the two finalists from Saturday will participate in the first rounds in Hyderabad from 20 September).
The passage of Leicestershire and Somerset to the final at Edgbaston was unconventional. Both semi-finals were interrupted by heavy showers and tied, which meant that a semi-saturated crowd of 20,000 witnessed two "eliminators" ? one-over matches, which sent the unfortunates from Hampshire and Lancashire out of the competition.
Somerset and Marcus Trescothick had to endure being Twenty20 runners-up for the third season in a row. "Why do I feel like we've been here before?" said Trescothick. Because he has.
Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2011/aug/28/leicestershire-somerset-twenty20-final-edgbaston
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