Simon Harmer and Aron Nijjar spin Essex Eagles into T20 Blast final

SAM MORSHEAD AT EDGBASTION: Harmer finished with 4-19 from his four overs and Nijjar - playing in only his second T20 match - claimed 3-26 to ensure Derbyshire's first visit to Finals Day would come to an early end

Edgbaston: Essex Eagles 160-5, Derbyshire Falcons 126 - Essex won by 34 runs

Scorecard

Simon Harmer and Aron Nijjar spun Derbyshire Falcons a web from which they could find no way out as Essex Eagles reached the T20 Blast final in comfortable fashion.

Harmer finished with 4-19 from his four overs and Nijjar - playing in only his second T20 match - claimed 3-26 to ensure Derbyshire’s first visit to Finals Day would come to an early end.

This Edgbaston pitch, in the centre of a square which has received more than its fair share of use during a hectic summer, has quickly shown itself to favour the slower bowlers. And Essex took full advantage.

Defending 160, an innings built on the foundations of Cameron Delport’s half-century, they rattled through the Falcons’ line-up with ease to claim victory by 34 runs and set up a final against Worcestershire Rapids.

^{Simon Harmer took 4-19 for Essex Eagles}

In truth, Derbyshire came unstuck on the big occasion. While they bowled with discipline, they flummoxed and floundered against the turning ball with bat in hand.

The spinners claimed seven wickets - Dan Lawrence pitching in with one of his own in addition to Harmer and Nijjar’s three apiece - and six of those came bowled.

The pitch did facilitate much more spin than you might both ordinarily expect and hope from a Finals Day wicket, but it was up to the Falcons to combat it. They simply could not.

None of the batsmen made scores of more than 23 and only three of the top order reached double figures as their dreams of a showpiece final evaporated into the sunny September sky.

For Essex, this was as painless a semi-final experience as they could have hoped for, especially after they too found batting a little difficult.

Delport aside - the South African crashed 55 in 31 deliveries - no one really managed to find a rhythm. Had they not been given the cushion of runs provided to them by Delport in the powerplay, the chase might have been a little more tortuous.

^{Derbyshire Falcons were outplayed on Finals Day}

As it was, they barely needed to break into a sweat.

Luis Reece came out of the blocks like a greyhound on heat before being snaffled by an excellent, diving, one-handed grab by Adam Wheater off Aaron Beard, and then the spinners took over.

Harmer ripped one from outside leg to take the top of Billy Godleman’s off stump, Nijjar honed in on Wayne Madsen’s relative weakness against left-arm spin - albeit by bowling the Derbyshire veteran with a short, rank legside delivery, Leus Du Plooy was beaten by another pearl from Harmer that seemed to pass through his bat, and Anuj Dal danced down the wicket first ball only to lose leg peg.

At 66 for 5, it would have taken something really quite special for Derbyshire to have regained their footing.

That was not forthcoming.

Essex march on to their first Blast final.