Vince Half-Century Can't Stop Royals Defeat

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

Hampshire Royals v Middlesex PANTHERS
fRIENDS lIFE T20
mONday 18 June 2012
The Ageas Bowl

Summary: Middlesex beat Hampshire by six wickets
Hampshire: 157-6
Middlesex: 161-4 (19.2 ovs)
Scorecard
Concurrent Table

Royals Team
Adams, Carberry, Vince, McKenzie, Ervine, Maxwell, Mascarenhas, Bates, Ali, Briggs, Griffiths
Panthers Team
Denly, Rogers, Stirling, Malan, Dexter, Berg, Simpson, Rayner, Crook, Roland-Jones, Smith

An unbeaten James Vince knock of 64 anchored Hampshire's innings as they made a decent-looking 157-6 in this opening home Friends Life t20 match against the Middlesex Panthers at The Ageas Bowl.

Sadly, however, it wouldn't be enough as a steady, rather than spectacular, 107-run partnership between visiting pair Dawid Malan (46) and Paul Stirling (71) took the match away from the Royals; their opponents eventually securing a six wicket win with four balls remaining in the match.

The loss, though disappointing, was somewhat overshadowed by events earlier in the day as it was confirmed Surrey batsman Tom Maynard had passed away over night. The players all observed a minute's silence before the start of play [pictured below] by way of paying their respects.

The Royals' match, scheduled for Wednesday, at the Kia Oval has been postponed for the same reason so Hampshire are next in action at home to the Kent Spitfires next Friday as they look to gain their first victory of the FLt20 competition.

 

Hampshire won the toss and elected to bat first and, straight from the opening over, Michael Carberry set the ball rolling with a four to get off the mark. That was when Jimmy Adams took the spotlight, getting the crowd on their feet with an imaginative effort, scooped over his shoulder and behind him for six runs, before several fours followed, leaving him on 21 after just three overs.

And the fourth looked to be following suit for the hosts as Adams smashed another ball to the boundary but the joy was short lived as Toby Roland-Jones had him clean bowled at 32-1 having added a quick-fire 25 to the score.

That was when the tables turned. A succession of home batsmen came and went with not much to their name and, though Glenn Maxwell (15), making his first senior appearance of the season, announced his arrival in spectacular fashion with the second six of the innings in the 10th over, it wasn’t until Vince took control and brought up the Royals’ 100 (and, himself, moved to 41) that Hampshire started to wrestle back control.

Captain, Dimitri Mascarenhas made a useful 21 runs alongside Vince before becoming the fourth batsmen to succumb to Roland-Jones’ (4-25) pace, being clean bowled with the score at 127. But the Academy product, supported by Kabir Ali, accelerated towards the finish line, smashing a six off the last ball of the 19th over and helping setting the opposition a run-rate of nearly eight-an-over for victory.

And things looked good for the hosts when they took their first wicket in the second over, Joe Denly (2) falling to Ali. Mascarenhas (1-24), too, soon got in on the action, forcing Chris Rogers to present Sean Ervine with an easy catch in the very next over.

Malan and Stirling, therefore, sought to steady the ship for the visitors and that they did. By the end of the powerplay they had taken the score to 52-2 – a full ten runs ahead of the Royals at the same stage and with an extra wicket in hand.

The two then made their 50 partnership with a maximum from Malan and brought up the team 100 in the same over as Stirling’s 50, leaving the score on 107-2 with seven overs remaining to chase down 51 runs.

It was David Griffiths who eventually made the breakthrough; taking the scalp of Malan (46) who sent his shot straight to Adams at short mid-wicket. By that point, however, the Panthers only needed 33 more to win off 26 balls.

And though Stirling would also fall the Panthers refused to panic, patiently chasing down the target with four balls to spare, Gareth Berg (11*) and captain Neil Dexter(17*) seeing them over the line.
 

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.

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

	Player	4s	6s	Total
1	James Vince	5	1	6
2	Jimmy Adams	4	1	5
3	Dimitri Mascarenhas	1	1	2
4	Glenn Maxwell	0	1	1
=5	Michael Carberry, Sean Ervine, Kabir Ali	1	0	1

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: Harry Hunt
Images: Getty Images (Vince)
/ Robin Jones (Team)

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