HAMPSHIRE beat Lancashire in an amazing Twenty20 Blast final just seconds after believing they had won it.

The match ended with smoke billowing over Edgbaston, caused by a flurry of fireworks that was mistakenly set off in the false belief that Hampshire had won.

It was then that Nathan Ellis, an Aussie paceman from Hampshire, bowled Richard Gleeson of Lancashire with the final delivery in the 20 over.

Ellis ran 40 yards to mid-wicket, and was quickly engulfed in his jumping and joyous team-mates. As the pyrotechnics went off, there were explosions and bangs.

Hampshire, and everyone else in the crowd believed they had won by four runs.

People noticed immediately that Graham Lloyd, the son of David 'Bumble" Lloyd, was being used as an umpire for no-ball.

He called the players back to bowl the final delivery. It was also a free hit.

The smoke was slow to disperse and Gleeson hit the ball. Tom Hartley and he were able to scamper with only a bye, and Lancashire had really won by one run.

Lancashire believed the ball should have been still alive in order to give the opportunity for a second bye to tie up the match. The umpires declared the ball dead because Hampshire players were removing their stumps from the ground.

Dane Vilas, Lancashire captain, said that "The umpires are using technology for everything so we'd like them to ask for replays to see if they completed two runs."

James Vince, Hampshire captain, insists that Dane entered the field and was questioning umpires. They weren't going two to the wicketkeeper, so I don't know what he meant."

Ellis said, "My heart dropped when I saw the umpire’s arm sticking out. We had been celebrating for thirty seconds." James pulled us all together and let us take a deep breath. He made sure everyone was aware.

Lancashire would have won if the scores were even because they had scored more runs during the power play. The first decider, which was the number of wickets lost, was tied at eight runs each.

Hampshire should have been out of the frame. Lancashire ran to 72-1 in eighth over, chasing a modest target 152.

Vince is able to use the best bowling attack of the tournament, and they began taking wickets and scoring suffocating runs.

They are joined by Leicestershire as the only county to win the domestic T20 competition three times.

Hampshire had no England players missing, while Lancashire could include Phil Salt and Matt Parkinson who were both released by England in the one-day international team.

Jos Buttler, Liam Livingstone and others had to remain in Manchester as they prepared for today's series-decider versus India.

Parkinson, a wrist-spinner, previously captured 4-26. He looked like he had bowled Lancashire to victory.

Although Parkinson has been a member of the England squad for many years, he receives very few opportunities.

He was dropped from the T20s and 50-over squads to face South Africa in the coming fortnight, Adil Rashid returning from Hajj pilgrimage.

England believes Parkinson bowls too slow, but he was fast enough to dismiss four of Hampshire’s top batsmen, including Ben McDermott (Australia), who plunders 62 from 35 balls.

Parkinson took 1-18 runs from the three overs against Yorkshire in the semi-final high scoring match. The Red Rose men were chasing 205 with eight balls left and won the match.

Somerset was defeated by Hampshire by 37 runs in the semi-final.