T20 Blast 2019: Essex use Adam Zampa’s cutout in winners photo after the title win

The T20 Blast 2019 saw the Essex county winning the finals and lifting their first Blast title. The Essex Eagles, as the T20 team is known, had made it into the finals by beating Derbyshire in the second semi-final. They faced Worcestershire, who defeated Nottinghamshire in the first semi-final.

The tournament was filled with excitement and amazing performances from the majority of the players, but the best of the best came from Essex Eagles’ captain Simon Harmer, who starred in both the knockout wins for his team. He had earlier picked 4/19 against Worcestershire in the semis and then managed to one-up himself in the finals, contributing with the bat as well as the ball.

Worcestershire had been put in to bat after losing the toss, put on 145/9 with Rikki Wessels and Moeen Ali making scores in the 30s. Simon Harmer picked 3/16 and Ravi Bopara took 2/30. In the reply, Tom Westley slammed 36 in 31 balls, but quick and cheap wickets of Delport, Wheater and Ten Doeschate put Essex in trouble.

Hilarious from Essex

But then Ravi Bopara (36*), combined with Paul Walter (14) and skipper Simon Harmer (18*) to take his team to their first-ever T20 Blast title. For Worcestershire, Ali and Parnell picked two wickets each, but it was not enough. However, the most hilarious thing was seen in the aftermath of the win, as Essex were handed over the trophy and the team members gathered for the photo-op, someone was missing in person in the lineup, but we’re still there for the picture.

Adam Zampa, Essex’s Australian recruit had to leave the tournament midway to take part in the Marsh Cup. He was sorely missed as he had partnered with Harmer to form a deadly frontline spin attack that helped the champions on their journey to the finals. When the team got together for the photo-op, Essex team used a cardboard cutout of Zampa who missed the knockout stage of the Blast. The cutout was hilarious and showed Zampa celebrating a wicket in Hulk style.

Adam Zampa had to fly back to Australia so they got a cardboard cut-out to pose for him with the trophy. Amazing stuff. 😂 pic.twitter.com/AdqlToCUnx

— Manya (@CSKian716) September 22, 2019

“We’re always told we’re a small club but we have the chance to win the double and I think we’ve shown we’re a force to be reckoned with, Harmer was quoted as saying by the Guardian. Meanwhile losing captain Moeen Ali said, “I thought they deserved to win. At one point, I thought we were winning the game but the way Ravi played was fantastic and basically won the game. As long as he was in, I always thought they were going to win.”