Northants Steelbacks produced an excellent bowling display to defeat defending champions Birmingham Bears in the Natwest T20 Blast this afternoon.
The Bears, who are hosting finals day at Edgbaston, never recovered after falling to 14-4 off 3.2 overs as David Willey blew through the top order, and although Rikki Clarke (41) and Ateeq Javid (51) rallied, they could only manage 131-6 off their 20 overs.
Despite losing five wickets in their reply, Northants were always ahead of the run-rate and a well-constructed 63 from opener Richard Levi eased his side over the line with 12 balls to spare.
The second semi-final was equally one-sided as Lancashire Lightning had few problems in seeing off Hampshire by six wickets.
James Vince made 69 for Hampshire but his team were bowled out for 115, leaving Lightning with the relatively simple task of reaching their target with seven balls remaining, with Karl Brown top-scoring with a run-a-ball 45.