Having won the inaugural Twenty20 Cup competition in 2003 and then been runners-up last year, Surrey Lions fell at the semi-final stage of the 2005 tournament, losing to Lancashire by twenty-two runs despite a brave attempt to overhaul the Lightning's mammoth 217-4. One had to feel sorry for the Surrey players who had finished their match at Trent Bridge at 6.15pm the previous evening while their opponents had been able to enjoy almost a full week's rest ahead of Finals Day. It was not surprising therefore that they lacked a certain sharpness at times, and the Lancashire lads should hang their heads in shame at failing to win their first trophy since 1999 as their conquerors in the final, Somerset Sabres, had also been engaged in Championship action until late the previous evening.

As Somerset showed in the final, the key to beating the Red Rose county was to remove as many of their free-scoring top four - Loye, Law, Flintoff and Symonds - as possible before they could do serious damage. Alas for Surrey, all four of these key batsmen made runs, with Stuart Law and Mal Loye feasting on three variable overs from the inexperienced Jade Dernbach - making the toughest possible Twenty20 debut - and an uncharacteristically loose 17-run opening over from Tim Murtagh, to race to 73-1 from the first seven overs. Dernbach had been unlucky to have Law dropped by Ian Salisbury at slip with the batsman on eleven, and the Lightning opener went on to make thirty-eight from 23 balls before Murtagh had him taken by the unfortunate debutant at extra cover in the sixth over. This opening breakthrough brought Flintoff to the crease and, after a fairly sedate start, he tucked into Salisbury and Nayan Doshi with relish despite the loss of Mal Loye, who was bowled by the Lions' left-arm spinner with the score at 93 in the tenth over. While Andrew Symonds settled in slowly, scoring just twelve runs from his first 13 balls and surviving a low chance to Salisbury at deep mid-on with his score on ten, Flintoff progressed rapidly to forty-nine from 28 deliveries before Doshi bowled him with a much quicker delivery to seal his position as the leading wicket-taker in the 2005 tournament. From 138-3 after fourteen overs at the point of Flintoff's departure, Symonds rapidly moved up through the gears, assisted initially by Mark Ramprakash's baffling decision to replace the impressive Rikki Clarke with young Dernbach, who promptly disappeared for twenty-one runs in the final over of his allocation. Despite the best efforts of Azhar and Murtagh, there was now no stopping the big Australian as he stormed on to a 27-ball half-century that powered the Lightning on to their imposing total of 217-4. To add insult to injury, the Lions had been penalised six runs for a below-par over-rate at the start of the final over. Although it was undeniably true that the bowler and fielders had failed, by around five seconds, to get into position to commence the twentieth over, the umpires' decision was harsh since Flintoff had taken approximately forty-five seconds to re-tie both of his bootlaces at the start of an over early in his innings - a 'stoppage' that should have been taken into account by Messrs Gould and Sharp.

If they were to have any chance of completing a record-breaking chase, the Lions clearly had to spring out of the traps. Although James Anderson produced an excellent second over costing just three runs, the young paceman's following two overs, plus Dominic Cork's first two, were expensive, allowing James Benning and Alistair Brown to take their side to 70-0 after the first seven overs. The introduction of Symonds, bowling off-spin, then gave the hosts further encouragement as a 17-run over boosted the total to 87-0, but the loss of wickets in successive overs as rain began to fall suddenly stymied Surrey's progress. Having reached forty-two from 24 balls by slog-sweeping Gary Keedy's first delivery for six, Benning was beaten in the flight and bowled by the next ball, while Scott Newman again struggled when faced by spin after coming in at number three and fell to a bat-pad catch by Warren Hegg as he attempted to sweep Symonds. With rain falling heavily, play was immediately suspended at 98-2 from 9.4 overs, Surrey having just slipped behind the Duckworth-Lewis par score as a result of Newman's dismissal. Fortunately, play was able to restart fairly quickly, though the break didn't do the home side any good as Brown, crucially, and Clarke departed while just eight runs were added from the next fourteen deliveries. Having just reached fifty from 31 balls, Brown was unable to beat Mark Chilton's return to Hegg when Ramprakash called him through for a tight single to mid-wicket, while Clarke missed an ambitious reverse sweep at Andrew Crook shortly after arriving at the crease. With 112 runs needed from only eight overs, Ramprakash and Azhar immediately launched a furious do-or-die counter-attack which included a 22-run assault on Crook's second over that brought the target down to a slightly more manageable seventy-four from six. The returning Flintoff and Cork then produced decent overs to reassert Lancashire's authority, only for home hopes to be rekindled again when Glen Chapple was introduced for the seventeenth over and conceded fifteen runs. A requirement of forty-one runs from three overs was still an unlikely proposition for the Lions, however, and the game was as good as decided when Anderson had Azhar caught at cover - ending a spirited fifth-wicket partnership of seventy-six from 38 balls - during an excellent over that yielded just five singles. Flintoff's extraction of Ramprakash's off stump, courtesy of the fine yorker with which he started the nineteenth over, confirmed the Lightning's triumph but Surrey could justifiably claim to have given it their best shot as they closed on a creditable 195-7.

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