Fielding a side with no overseas player, and with Olly Hannon-Dalby playing his first game in the Blast since 2023, Bears arrived in the south west very much as underdogs but they made full use of the good early batting conditions.

When Davies struck the final ball of Craig Overton’s opening over for four it started a sequence of nine successive boundaries, with Rob Yates (25) hammering 24 from Australian paceman Meredith’s first set of six.

The 18 fours hit by the visitors in the powerplay created a new tournament record, as they raced to 82-1 from the opening six overs.

Davies made 71 from only 39 balls, with 13 fours, but when he became one of Ben Green’s (2-30) two victims the Bears lost momentum, with only 63 runs coming from the final 8.3 overs – and for the first time in Blast history a side failed to hit a six in a completed T20 innings at Taunton

Somerset found the early stages of their innings tougher going than their opponents, with the home crowd unusually subdued as their team lost wickets at regular intervals.

When Dickson joined Abell at the wicket the home side still required a further 111 runs from under 10 overs, and when the latter fell for 51 with 57 still needed, their hopes of a third title seemed to be slipping away.

Hannon-Dalby (3-24) bowled superbly despite a lack of match time in the format, but the South African was keeping Somerset in the game while wickets fell at the other end.

He doggedly got them to the final over still in with a chance and, when Barnard opened with a wide and Craig Overton then scrambled a single, Dickson produced his late fireworks to send Somerset to a fifth straight Finals Day.