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The 2019 Vitality Blast T20 is a professional Twenty20 cricket league in England and Wales. It is sponsored by Vitality Blast, hence the name of the tournament. This year’s league will start on July 18, 2019, and will end on September 21, 2019. It has a total of 18 participant teams representing the 18 first-class counties.
The teams are divided into two groups, the North Division, and South Division:
Northern Division
- Derbyshire Falcons
- Durham Jets
- Lancashire Lightning
- Leicestershire Foxes
- Northamptonshire Steelbacks
- Notts Outlaws
- Birmingham Bears
- Worcestershire Rapids
- Yorkshire Vikings
Southern Division
- Essex Eagles
- Glamorgan
- Gloucestershire
- Hampshire
- Kent Spitfires
- Middlesex
- Somerset
- Surrey
- Sussex Sharks
During the group stage, each team plays six teams in the same division twice- one hone and one away. They play the remaining two teams in their division just once for a total of 14 matches for each club. The teams in the division are ranked according to total points followed by net-run-rate.
The Top 4 teams from each division will advance to the quarterfinals. The winners of the four quarterfinals matches will meet in the semifinals with the surviving teams playing in the final to decide the winner.
Last year, the Worcestershire Rapids won the title, defeating the Sussex Sharks by five wickets. This year neither finalist are on top of the odds board as the cricket betting favorites. 2017 champions Nottinghamshire are favorites to win this year.
Check out the latest odds to win the 2019 Vitality T20. Betting odds were taken from TitanBet as of 7/10/19:
| Team | Odds |
|---|---|
| Nottinghamshire | +550 |
| Sussex | +700 |
| Surrey | +800 |
| Hampshire | +800 |
| Somerset | +1000 |
| Lancashire | +1000 |
| Yorkshire | +1200 |
| Birmingham | +1200 |
| Essex | +1400 |
| Worcestershire | +1400 |
| Middlesex | +1400 |
| Kent | +1600 |
| Gloucestershire | +2000 |
| Glamorgan | +2000 |
| Durham | +2200 |
| Northamptonshire | +2500 |
| Derbyshire | +2500 |
| Leicestershire | +2500 |
The Nottinghamshire Outlaws beat the Birmingham Bears in 2017 to win their first ever T20 Blast championship. The Outlaws finished fourth in the North Division in 2018. Last season, they were knocked out of the quarter-finals by Somerset. Pace bowlers Jake Ball and Harry Gurney are among their top wicket-takers while their top batsmen are Alex Hales and Riki Wessels.
Nottinghamshire Outlaws squad: Daniel Christian, Billy Root, Ish Sodhi, Jake Libby, Tom Moores, Luke Fletcher, Harry Gurney, Samit Patel, Steven Mullaney (c), Jake Ball, Riki Wessels, Chris Nash, Matthew Carter
The Sussex Sharks made the semifinals in 2018 after failing to get past the group stage in the previous two seasons. Champions in 2009, the Sharks also made the final four in 2015. Sussex finished third in the South Division with a total of 18 points on seven wins last season. Laurie Evans led the league with a total of 614 runs with a strike rate of 135.84.
Sussex Sharks squad: Luke Wright (c), Will Beer, Danny Briggs, Tom Bruce, Michael Burgess, Laurie Evans, George Garton, Rashid Khan, Delray Rawlins, Jofra Archer, Ollie Robinson, Philip Salt, David Wiese
Surrey won the first edition of the English T20 in 2003 and were runners-up in 2004 and 2013. After failing to advance from the group stage in 2016, Surrey went 7-5 to finish second in their group in 2017 but lost to Birmingham in the quarterfinals. Aaron Finch had a pair of hundreds and 3 50s en route to a total of 589 runs.
Surrey Squad: Jade Dernbach (c), Gareth Batty, Scott Borthwick, Rory Burns, Rikki Clarke, Matt Dunn, Ben Foakes, Will Jacks, Morne Morkel, Ryan Patel, Mathew Pillans, Ollie Pope, Jamie Smith, Freddie van den Bergh
Hampshire has three semi-finals appearances in the previous five seasons and they were champions in 2010 and 2012. However, Hampshire finished second to bottom in the South Division last year with just two victories. LA Dawson had 289 runs with a strike rate of 129.59 in 12 innings for the squad.
Hampshire squad: Colin Munro, Lewis McManus, Chris Wood, Rilee Rossouw, Sam Northeast, Joe Weatherley, Gareth Berg, Ryan Stevenson, James Vince (c), Liam Dawson, Sean Ervine, Kyle Abbott, Tom Alsop, Mujeeb Ur Rahman
Somerset won the title in 2005 and finished as runners-up in three consecutive seasons from 2009-11. After a dismal 206, they made it to the quarterfinals in 2017. Somerset topped the South Division last season with 10 wins, the only team in the league to win double-digit games last year. However, they were beaten by the Sussex Sharks in the 2018 semifinals. Jamie Overton took 24 wickets last year, third most in the league.
Somerset squad: Tom Abell, Corey Anderson, Dominic Bess, Josh Davey, Steven Davies, Ben Green, Lewis Gregory (c), James Hildreth, Johann Myburgh, Jamie Overton, Peter Trego, Roelof van der Merwe, Max Waller, Cameron Bancroft, Jerome Taylor
