Friends Life t20 2013: Northants Win by 102 Runs (D/L) — David Willey's 60+Hat-Trick 4/9 Destroys Surrey at Edgbaston

Northamptonshire Steelbacks won the Friends Life t20 2013 on 17 August 2013 at Edgbaston, Birmingham, defeating Surrey by 102 runs via Duckworth-Lewis in a rain-shortened match. Rain reduced the final to 18 overs per side; Northants scored 194/2, with Alex Wakely scoring 59 off 25 balls and putting on a 107-run third-wicket partnership with Cameron White. Surrey were set a revised D/L target of 195 from 18 overs but were bowled out for 92 in 13.3 overs. David Willey scored 60 off 27 balls and took 4/9 including a hat-trick (Zafar Ansari, Chris Lewis, Chris Tremlett) as Player of the Match. Alex Wakely captained Northants; Gareth Batty captained Surrey. It was Northants' first major trophy since 1992.

David Willey's Hat-Trick 4/9: The Match-Defining All-Round Performance

David Willey's 4/9 in Surrey's chase — taking three consecutive wickets (Zafar Ansari, Chris Lewis, Chris Tremlett) to complete a hat-trick — was the bowling performance that turned Northants' 194/2 into a 102-run championship-winning margin. Willey, the left-arm fast-medium bowling all-rounder who had also scored 60 off 27 balls in Northants' innings, produced one of the most complete all-round performances in any domestic T20 final: a batting contribution that helped build the big total and a bowling hat-trick that demolished Surrey's chase. Surrey being bowled out for 92 in 13.3 overs — 103 runs short of the D/L revised target of 195 — reflected the quality of Willey's 4/9 as the catalyst that took three wickets in three balls and turned Surrey's already-challenging chase into a collapse. The 102-run margin remains one of the largest winning margins in any domestic English T20 final.

Alex Wakely 59 Off 25 and the 107-Run Partnership: Northants' First Major Trophy Since 1992

Alex Wakely's 59 off 25 balls — combining with Cameron White's partnership for a 107-run third-wicket stand — drove Northants to 194/2 in 18 overs and gave David Willey's bowling the margin it needed to win the title by 102 runs. Wakely, Northants' captain who had led the county through the 2013 Friends Life t20 campaign, scoring a match-defining half-century in the final while also captaining the side gave the 2013 Northants title its leadership-batting combination that major trophy wins require. Northants' 194/2 in a rain-reduced 18-over match — averaging over 10 runs per over — reflected the batting depth that Alex Wakely, Cameron White, and the overall lineup brought to the 2013 final on the Edgbaston pitch. The title was Northamptonshire's first major trophy in 21 years, since their 1992 NatWest Trophy win.

Friends Life t20 2013 in Context

The Friends Life t20 2013 — the final edition of the competition under 'Friends Life' branding — completed an 11-year run of the domestic English T20 competition since its 2003 inaugural Twenty20 Cup edition. The 2014 rebranding to the 'NatWest T20 Blast' marked the competition's transition into its most commercially prominent phase. Northants' 2013 championship — David Willey's hat-trick 4/9 and 60 off 27, Alex Wakely's 59 off 25 captain's innings — gave the county's first major trophy in 21 years a final performance that combined batting, bowling, and captaincy excellence to produce the largest winning margin in any domestic English T20 final at that point. Surrey, bowled out for 92 in 13.3 overs, suffered a batting collapse that made the 2013 Friends Life t20 final one of the most one-sided outcomes in the competition's history.