Friends Provident t20 2010: Hampshire Win Tied Final on Fewer Wickets — Neil McKenzie PoM in Hampshire's Home Ground Victory over Somerset

Hampshire Hawks won the Friends Provident t20 2010 on 14 August 2010 at The Rose Bowl, Southampton — their home ground — defeating Somerset by fewer wickets after both teams finished on exactly 173 runs. Somerset scored 173/6 in 20 overs; Hampshire chased and also reached 173/5 — tied on runs, but Hampshire won on the fewer-wickets-lost criterion (5 vs Somerset's 6). Neil McKenzie scored 52 as Player of the Match, the batting contribution that drove Hampshire's total to 173/5. Dominic Cork captained Hampshire to their first domestic T20 title. Craig Kieswetter scored 71 for the losing Somerset side.

A Tied Final Won by Fewer Wickets: Hampshire's Unusual T20 Title

Both Somerset and Hampshire finishing on 173 in the 2010 Friends Provident t20 final — with Hampshire winning on fewer wickets lost (5 vs 6) — was one of the most unusual results in any domestic English T20 final. The fewer-wickets-lost tiebreaker applied because Hampshire, despite not scoring a single run more than Somerset, had lost one fewer wicket in reaching the identical total: 173/5 (Hampshire) vs 173/6 (Somerset). The tied-run-total result gave the 2010 final its distinctive place in domestic T20 cricket history: neither team could be said to have outscored the other, but Hampshire's wicket-conservation gave them the title-deciding margin under the competition's tiebreaker rules. Craig Kieswetter's 71 for Somerset and Neil McKenzie's 52 for Hampshire were the two batting highlights of a final where run-scoring parity across 40 overs was so complete that only wickets separated the champions from the runners-up.

Dominic Cork and a Home-Ground Title at The Rose Bowl

Dominic Cork captaining Hampshire to the 2010 Friends Provident t20 title at The Rose Bowl — Hampshire's own county ground — gave the veteran England all-rounder his most significant county captaincy success. Cork, who had taken over the Hampshire captaincy after a mid-season leadership change, led the county to their first domestic T20 championship in the Friends Provident t20's single Finals Day edition that used The Rose Bowl as its venue. Hampshire winning at their home ground — The Rose Bowl in Southampton — gave the title the home-crowd advantage dimension that domestic T20 finals at neutral venues (like Edgbaston) do not provide, with Hampshire's fans present in large numbers for what became a closely-fought tie resolved by wickets rather than runs.

Friends Provident t20 2010 in Context

The Friends Provident t20 2010 was the first edition under the 'Friends Provident' title sponsorship that rebranded the competition from the 'Twenty20 Cup' branding of 2003-2009 — one of several name changes the competition underwent between its 2003 inaugural edition and the 2014 introduction of the NatWest T20 Blast. The 2010 Finals Day at The Rose Bowl — the third time the Southampton ground had hosted Finals Day (also 2005 for the Twenty20 Cup and 2008 for the same competition) — gave Hampshire another home advantage for a domestic T20 final. Hampshire's tied-on-runs win over Somerset on fewer wickets gave the 2010 Friends Provident t20 the most unusual final result in the competition's history up to that point, completing Hampshire's first domestic T20 championship at the ground that was both their county home and the competition's Finals Day venue for 2010.