Somerset can now proudly claim to be the team to beat in T20 cricket in England having made three finals in a row, winning two of them.

Following their 2023 victory over Essex it was a different story last season as they suffered an eight-wicket thrashing at the hands of Gloucestershire.

They appeared to be struggling to keep up with the required run-rate of almost 10 per over this time around before Smeed and Dickson turned the game on its head with a fourth-wicket stand of 88.

Smeed and Tom Kohler-Cadmore, who made an outstanding 81 in their semi-final win over Lancashire, had got Somerset off to a lightning start, taking them to 46-0 in the fifth over when Kohler-Cadmore was bowled by Sonny Baker’s rapid yorker.

On a day where 44 sixes were struck, Kohler-Cadmore hit the biggest of them all when he swiped Chris Wood over the Eric Hollies Stand.

But a couple of overs later he was gone as young England paceman Baker yorked him with an 88mph beauty.

At 89-3 in the 10th over, the game was in the balance but Smeed continued to find boundaries, hitting 14 fours and a six in total.

Perhaps the crucial moment came in the 14th over when Scott Currie dropped Dickson on the boundary with the required run-rate above 12 an over.

Smeed chipped Currie to James Vince on the long-off boundary six short of a deserved century to give Hampshire hope before Gregory ended it in the same over with a four and a couple of leg-side sixes.