Thrills and a spill as whirlwind blows in

Not in front of the children, surely. Kids were let in for a fiver at Lord's yesterday and helped to swell the crowd for the C&G final between Somerset and Leicestershire to near-capacity. But they should have been spared the brief riot of unorthodoxy from Shahid Afridi. It must have left the little dears in a dangerously overexcited state.

"He's a free spirit and we let him go," said Vince Wells, Leicestershire's captain, and yesterday he went.

The papers had identified Afridi as Leicestershire's key man. In the semi-final he scored 95 off 58 balls and swept Lancashire aside almost single-handed. He bowled in that game too, but the match previews concentrated exclusively on his batting.

When Somerset batted first it looked as though he might be man of the match for his bowling. He was the sixth bowler used by Wells, but he was no afterthought. At the start of his run he spins the ball vigorously from hand to hand, like Saqlain Mushtaq, before striding in and bowling his leg-breaks at more than 60mph – a good lick for a spinner. He took three wickets quickly as Somerset moved from a comfortable 107 for 1 to a precarious 149 for 4.

Peter Bowler tried to hit Afridi to the midwicket boundary and was bowled. Jamie Cox played round a leg- break, was beaten by pace and bowled. Ian Blackwell hit Afridi for a memorable six into a Grandstand box but he was soon bowled too. Afridi had taken 3 for 20 in 4.3 overs. Somerset were on the brink of a disaster, but Afridi took no more wickets and they were rescued by an unbroken stand of 95 between Keith Parsons and Rob Fowler. They had powered Somerset to such a formidable total that Leicestershire's fortunes did indeed depend on Shahid Afridi scoring big runs.

If Afridi ever learnt about defence, he has forgotten it. If he ever had an instruction manual, he has torn it up.

Andrew Caddick opened the bowling and Afridi swung his bat as if to hit the first two balls out of the ground. Fortunately for Caddick, he missed, confused perhaps, as sloggers often are at Lord's, by the slope. The third ball went for a single, and Afridi was not at bat again until Caddick's second over. A dot ball was followed by a sharply run single that was turned into a five by overthrows.

Richard Johnson bowled the fourth over and he knew only too well what had hit him. Shahid connected with the first four balls. They were not middled but they went for boundaries to midwicket, over the slips and square through point, and were punctuated by a modest two to mid-on. Shahid was 20 already while Trevor Ward was still to get off the mark, and now he played the fifth ball of the over as he had the others. He edged it, but the ball had been hit so hard that it steepled high in the sky and Rob Turner was able to run to third slip and wait for it.

"We've had skyball practice because we thought that was how we'd get him out. Fortunately the keeper was under it and not me," said Jamie Cox, the Somerset captain.

Somerset's fielders ran towards Johnson, Johnson ran towards them, and when they met they embraced as though they had collectively survived a catastrophe. Perhaps they had.