Royals Left Frustrated at Spitfires' Narrow Victory

Match report from the Hampshire Royals' Friends Life t20 match against the Kent Spitfires at The Ageas Bowl

Hampshire Royals v Kent Spitfires
Friends Life t20
FRIday 22 June 2012
The Ageas Bowl

Summary: Kent beat Hampshire by three runs
Kent Spitfires: 151-5
Hampshire Cricket: 148-6
Scorecard
Concurrent Table

Royals Team
Adams, Carberry, Vince, McKenzie, Ervine, Maxwell, Mascarenhas*, Ali, Wood, Bates†, Briggs
 Spitfires Team
Billings, Key, Azhar Mahmood, Stevens, Nash, Northeast, Jones, Coles, Ball, Tredwell, Davies

Hampshire came heart-breakingly close to victory only to be narrowly squeezed out by the Kent Spitfires in this Friends Life t20 game at The Ageas Bowl.

Captain Dimi Mascarenhas (2-21) and the returning Chris Wood (2-24) – in for the injured David Griffiths - bowled beautifully to restrict their opponents to 151-5, but a dip in the run-rate around the middle overs meant they finished on 148-6, four runs shy of victory.

The man of the match award was handed to visiting batsman Sam Northeast, who aided his side's win with an unbeaten knock of 46 from just 26 deliveries (6 fours, 1 six).

Hampshire now travel to Canterbury to take on the same team in the same competition once again. They’ll be hoping the only thing that isn’t the same is the result.

 

Mascarenhas won the toss for the Royals and elected to bowl first, which seemed like a canny decision given the swing-friendly, murky skies that had graced the South Coast all day prior to the game. And the home captain opened the bowling in typical fashion from the Northern End, not going for a single boundary with his first 14 deliveries. With ball number 15 he was launched for six by opposite number, Rob Key (10) but then hit back emphatically by trapping the veteran dangerman lbw with his next delivery.

Wood continued in a similar vein as his skipper at the opposite end, removing Sam Billings (20) – the 21 year old well beaten for pace by the left-armer. At the halfway stage Kent were 56-2.

The Royals began to apply a stranglehold on the game and restricted the Spitfires to working predominantly in singles. The wickets of Darren Stevens (14) and Azhar Mahmood (22) also fell in consecutive overs to leave Kent 78-4 after 12 overs and concluded Mascarenhas' four overs with an ever-reliably stingy return.

Kent did recover and Northeast batted well for his side when they most needed it - the pick of his shots being an exquisite drive down the ground in the 16th over - to haul the Spitfires up to a competitive 151-5 at the end of their innings.

But the Royals began their reply forcefully and, what’s more, enjoyed a fair slice of luck. When Jimmy Adams chipped to mid-off in the second over the chance was squandered by the Spitfires with Stevens putting it down. An over later, the Hampshire batsman was dropped for a second time, on 14, and he proceeded to clobber a massive six off Mahmood (2-44) to punish Kent's fielders for their missed opportunities; his side 40-0 after four overs.

However, it was third time lucky for Kent as James Tredwell (2-27) – who’d travelled all the way down from a rained off One Day International at Headingley just in time for the toss - made no mistake in removing Adams lbw for 27 (16 balls, 3 fours, 1 six) in his first over. But with that dismissal, up stepped James Vince (31) [pictured above] – fresh from an excellent 64 against Middlesex – to the crease.

And he lived up to his early promise in this competition, top scoring for the Royals once again. Nevertheless, by the time he left, the game was perched on a knife edge; the Royals needing 62 to win from 46 balls as the African duo of Sean Ervine and Neil McKenzie attempted to set fire to Hampshire's stalling run-rate.

But Kent battled well in the field and, as soon as they began holding onto their catches, the game began slipping away from the hosts. Requiring 37 runs from the last two overs McKenzie and Glenn Maxwell – who’d replaced Ervine (12) - hit 19 off the penultimate over before the former departed for a swashbuckling cameo of 14 off 11 balls.

Mascarenhas (0) was bowled by Coles (1-36) off the first ball of the final over but a six from Kabir Ali restored hope with Royals needing 10 off 2. Unfortunately, it wasn't to be, as Hampshire fell three runs short of the Spitfires' score, McKenzie and Ali left stranded on 18* and 13* respectively.

Trees for Boundaries:

During this match the Royals scored a total of 17 boundaries (four sixes and thirteen fours). Thanks to Hampshire Cricket and The Green Insurance Company's joint "Trees for Boundaries" campaign that means 170 trees will be planted at Great Chalfield Manor, in Wiltshire.

Added to the number of boundaries scored already in the competition, that means 340 trees have been amassed by the Hampshire team so far this competition.

The Royals' top boundary-scorers at this stage are as follows:

	Player	4s	6s	Total
1	James Vince	9	1	10
2	Jimmy Adams	7	2	9
3	Michael Carberry	5	0	5
4	Glenn Maxwell	1	2	3
5	Kabir Ali	2	1	3

The aim is to capture the carbon dioxide emissions arising from putting on t20 matches at The Ageas Bowl – a figure estimated to be roughly 250 tonnes. In order to capture this amount of carbon, 1,000 trees will have to be planted, so the club are hoping their team will hit 100 boundaries during home matches across the competition.

Check the bottom of each home T20 match report to see how the team are doing. 

Words: Dan Smith
Images: LMI Photography

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