Royals Heartbreak as Opening Loss Sees Them Eliminated

Match report from the Hampshire Royals' opening Champions League T20 Qualifying Group A match against the Auckland Aces

Hampshire Royals v Auckland Aces
Champions League T20 Qualifying Group A
Wednesday 10 October
Centurion, South Africa

Summary: Auckland beat Hampshire by 8 wickets
Hampshire Royals: 121-8
Auckland Aces: 123-2 (14.3 overs)
Scorecard
Concurrent Table

Royals Team:
Carberry, Vince, Adams*, Ervine, Maxwell, Shahid Afridi, Dawson, Wood, Bates†, Balcombe, Griffiths
Aces Team: 
Guptill, Vincent, Azhar Mahmood, Kitchen, Hopkins*†, Munro, de Grandhomme, Hira, Mills, Adams, Bates

After Auckland recorded victory in their opening Champions League Qualifying Group A match yesterday the Royals always knew they only had one strike – lose this match and they were out – and that was how events transpired.

It took a fantastic all-round performance from the Aces’ Azhar Mahmood, who brought up all the fives with bowling figures of 5-24 and an innings of 55*, to help his side to an eight wicket victory at SuperSport Park in Centurion.

It meant that a run-a-ball knock of 65 (including eight fours and one six) from Michael Carberry was all in vain as his side’s score of 121-8 was chased down in 14.3 overs.

The New Zealanders’ winning of the toss and inserting Hampshire undoubtedly played a part but so did their experience of this stage of the competition having been here last year and also their much earlier arrival in South Africa – a luxury they were afforded due to the two hemisphere’s contrasting schedules.

Hampshire now have to pick themselves up to play Pakistani Champions Sialkot Stallions tomorrow [Thursday 11 October] knowing that both sides will be merely playing for pride.

Captain, Dimi Mascarenhas [pictured, left] said; “It’s a shame when the wicket dictates the whole game and losing the toss of a coin. But to their credit they got it in the right areas and, after we made 120, we were never going to win that. Carbs played nicely and stuck in there and we thought we had a chance to get up to 140 at one stage but we just kept losing wickets and it’s hard to create a big score when you keep losing wickets like that.”

On being eliminated after having lost just the single match they’ve played, Mascarenhas added; “We knew it was going to be tough coming into it [the competition]. It’s funny, yesterday we were all hoping Auckland would lose so that would sort of get a ‘double chance’ but it’s not to be and they go through. Well done to them.”

Signs that the conditions were not what Hampshire are used to were evident as early as the opening over when a short delivery from Kyle Mills was gloved – or was it top-edged? – by Carberry over the slip cordon in a slightly awkward fashion. But any psychological blow gained by the New Zealand International was lost somewhat as the ball sailed over the ropes for six, Mills conceding as many runs in that one shot as he had in a full set of four overs against Sialkot on Tuesday when recording Champions League T20 Best Figures of 2-6.

It fell, therefore, to Mahmood to take over the mantle of match-winner for his side and, in the fourth over, the Kent all-rounder drew first blood. Having been hit for six first ball by Vince (11), Mahmood snapped back with venom to take the Hampshire opener’s wicket (caught at mid-on) and that of his replacement, Jimmy Adams (caught behind without scoring) in four balls. Having started well, Hampshire now looked in a spot of trouble at 23-2.

That would bring Shahid Afridi (0) to the crease, playing his first Twenty20 match for the Royals this season after Visa issues prevented him from returning for the Friends Life t20 campaign. The Pakistani would be next to face his fellow countryman but Mahmood won this battle too, throwing down three short deliveries, the last of which tempted the man affectionately known as “Boom Boom” into giving it a whack, only to be caught impressively by Andre Adams at mid-on. All that meant that, at the end of the powerplay, Hampshire were 29-3; their charge stalling somewhat.

And they were still not very comfortable by the time they brought up their 50 without further loss in the 10th over so, feeling the need to inject some pace, Sean Ervine charged down the wicket to spinner Ronnie Hira, launching him for six through midwicket and Carberry [pictured, above right] pulled him for four more just two balls later. Alas, once more it was a case of a few steps forward a few more back as, only another couple of deliveries later, Ervine (16) tried to throw the kitchen sink at Hira but could only reach Anaru Kitchen at long-on, the Royals 64-6.

And that would be the case for the remainder of the innings as promising cameos, including a knock of 10 from Glenn Maxwell that included as many boundaries as singles and a punishing10-run over from Carberry to take him to the brink of his half-century (soon brought up off 58 balls, five fours, one six) were interspersed with too many wickets to maintain any momentum.

A target of 122 always looked to favour the Aces but they hit the ground running anyway, taking 15 runs off the fourth over and another 13 off the fifth. The only positive for Hampshire inside the powerplay overs was the wicket, caught by Adams at short cover off Chris Wood (1-21 off 2 overs) of Lou Vincent (19) but, by this time, Auckland had reached their 50 a full four-and-a-half overs before their opponents.

Besides which, that only served to bring Mahmood to the crease who, high on his bowling heroics earlier in the afternoon, was in a hurry to confirm his side’s extended stay in South Africa. He had almost equalled Martin Guptill’s 38 by the time the opener was out, caught at long-on by Kabir Ali off Afridi [pictured, left] (who finished with fine bowling figures of 1-23 off 4 overs) – the Aces 90-2 in the 12th over.

And it wasn’t long before Mahmood brought up his 50 with an extravagant slog-swept maximum over midwicket before cutting Maxwell for four to wrap up the match.

Words: Simon Vincent
Images: Getty Images /
CLT20 Staff

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