Vince / Carberry Masterclass Gets Royals Off to Winning Start
May 3 2013
Vince celebrates his third ton of the season so far
Essex Eagles v Hampshire Royals
Yorkshire Bank 40
Friday 3 May
ECG, Chelmsford
Summary: Hampshire beat Essex by nine wickets
with 10.2 overs remaining
Essex Eagles: 244-6
Hampshire Royals: 245-1 (29.4 ovs)
Scorecard
Concurrent Group Table
Eagles:
Westley, Quiney, Bopara, Pettini, Foster*+, Smith, Foakes, Napier, Phillips, Mahmood, Topley
Royals:
Vince, Carberry, Adams*, Bailey, Ervine, Dawson, Wheater+, Riazuddin, Wood, Briggs, Tomlinson
An incredible 156-run opening partnership from James Vince (129* off 93 balls, including 17 fours and one six) and Michael Carberry (65 off 51 balls, eight fours, one six) showed why the Hampshire Royals are limited-overs kings and reigning champions in this format as they thrashed the Essex Eagles by nine wickets in their opening match of the newly re-named Yorkshire Bank 40 competition at the ECG, Chelmsford.
The feat was even more remarkable given that a belligerent 93-run sixth-wicket partnership from Graham Napier (50) and Greg Smith (47) appeared have given the hosts the initiative, going in on 244-6.
But the Royals' openers put on a display reminicent of their heroics against Sussex at Hove in last season's 40-over Semi-Final (when they smashed their way to a 129-run opening partnership inside 13 overs) to very quickly put the game beyond doubt. Indeed, Vince batted beautifully all the way to 100 and even took him to the brink of a previous career-best List A score of 131.
Needless to say, the Royals lead their group after the first fixture and the Scottish Saltires, who come to The Ageas Bowl on Sunday will be shaking in their boots!
Hampshire’s 2012 40-over success was based on a principle of chasing where possible and so that was exactly what Jimmy Adams chose to do when he won the toss. However, the major talking points before the start of play belonged to the visitors’ team selection as James Tomlinson (1-38) - a last minute addition to the squad in place of the injured David Griffiths – was selected to play his first Limited Overs match since 30 May 2010 (incidentally, that was a List A clash against Sunday's Ageas Bowl opponents, Scotland in which George Bailey struck 90 against his current Royals' team-mates!) Also, Adam Wheater took the gloves rather than (as some had expected) Michael Bates.
And it was Wheater who was involved in the first talking point of the match as he deftly (it took a TV Umpire to confirm!) stumped Tom Westley (34) off a Danny Briggs (2-37 off seven overs) delivery. And the left-arm spinner, who had, earlier in the day, been omitted from England’s Champions Trophy squad, was at it again in the 19th over, clean bowling a man who had made that squad – Ravi Bopara for 6; Essex 88-2 at the half-way stage in the innings.
Home batsman, Bobby Quiney (71) – himself, a man who has missed out on the Australia Ashes squad earlier this week - had watched both wickets fall from the other end and was proving Essex’s rock early on, reaching 50 off 70 balls in the 22nd over. He was just starting to look really confident, smashing Hamza Riazuddin (1-45) back over his head for four in the 28th over, when – next ball – a clever slower delivery from the all-rounder uprooted his middle stump (one for the Sky cameras!) and that prompted a spell in which Hampshire took 3-8 by the time Essex were just through the 30 over mark; 143-5.
That, inevitably, slowed the run rate until the in-form Napier donated a ball to a local building site outside of the ground and home skipper James Foster called the batting powerplay for four of the last five overs. Napier and South African all-rounder Smith took full advantage, hitting 62 off the next four overs as Hampshire, hampered by the fielding restrictions struggled to stem the flow. They did take both scalps by the end of the innings but would have been forgiven had they left the field a little deflated having let their opposition reach 244-6.
Nevertheless, they knew a run-chase of just over 6 and over isn’t unachievable - after all, both teams made 244 in the Lord’s Final last season, when Hampshire won on fewer wickets lost! And Vince and Carberry [pictured, left] immediately took the game to Essex’s attack bringing up the team 50 after six overs (it took the Eagles 12!) then reaching 74-0 after the compulsory eight-over powerplay (the Eagles had 33!)
As they did in the Hove Semi-Final mentioned above, the pair immediately took the batting powerplay and an eighth Vince four brought up his 50 (27 balls) in advance of the partnership reaching 100 before the 10th over was done. They were going so well that the infamously partisan home crowd ironically cheered a dot in the 11th but they were soon silenced as Carberry struck successive boundaries to bring up his own half-century (33 balls, eight fours, one six); Hampshire half way to their target on 123-0 after 11 (122 required).
The batting masterclass continued as the 150 was reached in the 16th over and, by the time Carberry was caught and bowled by Napier next over, the Royals needed fewer than 90 runs for victory. That had become fewer than 60 when Vince brought up the third List A hundred (71 balls, 15 fours, one six) of his short career - and a third ton in all formats already this season - with a four off a free-hit.
That which had looked inevitable for some time was confirmed with more than 10 overs to spare. Roll on the Ageas Bowl on Sunday.
Background
As the first match of a new campaign, everyone starts with a clean slate, but Hampshire – being defending Champions - would have been optimistic that they could build on last year’s success, even if they were without their Lord’s hero Kabir Ali, who had moved to Lancashire.
Left-arm seamer Chris Wood had topped Hampshire’s 40-over wicket-taking charts for the last three years while Michael Carberry was the highest run-scorer in the country in this format the previous season.
Essex, meanwhile, finished 5th in Group A in 2012. Opener, Tom Westley was their stand-out batsman, hitting just short of 400 runs at an average of 44. Their top bowler was Indian spinner Harbhajan Singh with 11 wickets at 20.18 but he would not be returning for the Eagles.
Words: Simon Vincent
Images: LMI Photography