FURNESS proved themselves kings of short form cricket after winning a fourth South Cumbria Twenty20 crown in five years.

They beat Millom – the team who dominated the early years of the T20 competition – in a dramatic climax to this year’s Finals Day.

An exhilarating day’s cricket at Furness Park ended in the gloom at 9.15pm on Sunday, with the excellence of the home side’s attack shining through and keeping the 200-plus crowd on the edge of their seats.

The start of the final seemed to justify Millom’s decision to put Furness into bat as professional Saliya Saman and Paul O’Callaghan reduced the host club to 0 for four and then five for five, with Saman taking three wickets in a remarkable first over of the innings.

Brad Chapples and Tom Smith started the recovery for the defending champions, with Chapples making 26 and Smith 12. And then an unbeaten eighth-wicket partnership of 60 between youngsters Ryan Griffiths (34 not out) and George Smith (26 not out) proved to be the turning point.

They batted sensibly and took the score to 107-7 – which, although not a massive total, was to prove good enough in the end.

The Furness bowlers were almost as destructive as their Millom counterparts at the start of the innings as they reduced their opponents to 26 for 6, with the top order blown away.

Saman – who had led Millom to semi-final victory over Dalton with a brilliant unbeaten half century – was tasked with winning the game almost on his own once again.

But with the light fading quickly, Saman couldn’t reach the boundary often enough, and when he was the eighth man out for 29, the game was over.

Millom were eventually all out for 75, to give Furness their fourth title in five years by a winning margin of 32 runs and equal their opponents’ record of four T20 final wins since the competition began in 2004.

Lindal Moor batsman Chris Brookshaw nominated the gutsy Griffiths as man of the match.

The start of the Finals Day was delayed by over an hour due to early morning rain. The great efforts of the Furness ground staff enabled a 12.15pm start, with both semi-finals being reduced to 18-overs-a-side.

The first semi-final between Furness and Lindal Moor proved a precursor to how the final went, as a good bowling and fielding performance by Lindal restricted Furness to just 81-7 off their 18 overs.

Only opener Lewis Gribbin, with 30, played an innings of note.

But the Furness bowlers came out firing and bowled Moor out for just 48 in the final over. Skipper Paul Wilcock, with 19, and Mark Daly, with 12, were the only batsmen to make double figures, with Elliot Maxfield taking an excellent 3-12.

The best game of the day was the second semi-final between Dalton and Millom.

In a repeat of the North Lancs and Cumbria League Division One game between the sides 24 hours earlier, which ended in a convincing Millom victory, Dalton made a flying start.

Professional JP Van Aswegen and Mike Hargreaves made full use of the fielding restrictions in the power play as they put 60 on the board in the first five overs.

Van Aswegen was dismissed in the sixth over, and tight bowling by the Millom attack slowed down Dalton’s progress.

However, a late onslaught from skipper Daniel Sharpe took Dalton to a more than respectable total of 139-3. Sharpe hit two sixes and two fours in his 33 not out.

Following the early dismissal of Michael Gill, a good partnership between Danny Fallows and Saman steadied the ship. But four quick wickets by Van Aswegen and Adam Gibson seemed to put Dalton back in the driving seat.

The only obstacle in front of them as they bid to reach a second successive final, was the talented Sri Lankan pro Saman, who always seemed to have things under control, with the support of O’Callaghan.

Needing 72 to win from six overs was a big ask. But Saman didn’t panic and in finding the boundary on a regular basis, he chipped away at the target.

Millom still needed 17 off the last over, to be bowled by Dalton all-rounder Jon Bell. But Saman blasted a six and two fours to make the scores level with one ball to go.

With a ‘super over’ a distinct possibility and Dalton bringing in the whole field to stop a single, Saman pierced the field with another boundary to win the game with his brilliant knock of 74 not out.