Royals Do The Double with Victory at Lord's

Match Report: Hampshire v Warwickshire (Clydesdale Bank 40 Final)

Hampshire Royals v Warwickshire Bears
Clydesdale Bank 40 Final
Saturday 15 September 2012
Lord’s

Summary: Hampshire beat Warwickshire by losing fewer wickets
Hampshire Royals: 244-5
Warwickshire Bears: 244-7
Scorecard

Royals Team
Carberry, Vince, Adams*, McKenzie, Katich, Dawson, Ervine, Bates†, Wood, Ali, Griffiths
Bears Team
Chopra, Bell, Troughton*, Maddy, Clarke, Ambrose†, Woakes, Blackwell, Carter, Patel, Wright

The Hampshire Royals don't do things the easy way... but somehow they do get them done! Led by their inspirational captain, Jimmy Adams, who scored 66 to set his team en route to victory, they secured a win by virtue of losing fewer wickets than their opponents, the Warwickshire Bears in the Clydesdale Bank 40 Final at Lord’s.

It was a final ball thriller to add to a long list of final-ball and final-over thrillers and one which will doubtless increase the heart problems which will inevitably affect all Royals fans (who were magnificent in their support here) in later life.

But nobody will be complaining as this squad, which appears to have found the perfect blend of young, homegrown talent and world-class experience followed Friends Life t20 triumph in Cardiff just under a month ago with more silverware.

Now for the Champions League...!

 

Having lost the toss and been put in to bat, the Royals scored at a pretty consistent rate of 6.7 for the first quarter of the innings, the highlight of which was Michael Carberry's (35) 14-run over (one six and two fours) off Chris Woakes. But, having already dismissed James Vince (18) the Bears took his opening partner's not-insignificant scalp next over with a catch from Jeetan Patel that had shades of Neil McKenzie's "phantom" catch in the Friends Life t20 Final off David Miller in August. The difference was, this one was given, bringing McKenzie himself to the crease.

Hampshire's South African had travelled all the way back from his home country specifically for this match so it is probably fair to say that there was no-one in the two XIs that wanted to put in a decent contribution more! Fortunately, that's exactly what he did, batting in his customary, more circumspect manner to raise a 50 partnership with Adams and take his side to 120-2 just after the half-way stage in the innings.

When he left shortly after, bowled by Ian Blackwell for 19, it appeared Hants deemed it important to up the rate, promoting Sean Ervine up the order and his new partner, Adams, led the way by bringing up his 50 (51 balls; two fours and one six) in the 24th over. But it wasn't until the captain was out, making way for the man Ervine replaced at five, Simon Katich, that the team really put their foot down.

The powerplay called, Katich top edged his second delivery for four then drove the third for another boundary through mid-wicket. And almost immediately after the non-playing Dimi Mascarenhas (injured) had tweeted that Ervine was just getting ready to "unleash", that's exactly what the Zimbabwean did, smashing the biggest six of the match over the longest boundary in the ground.

The Royals registered 200 and a frustrated Rikki Clarke gave away two wides and two boundaries off the next over to go for 14. Then Ervine (57) brought up his run-a-ball 50 (five fours, one six) before being caught behind with an over to go. Finally, Neil Carter's last over in professional cricket then went for four and the Bears were set 245 to win at a rate of 6.125 per over - enough to give the Royals a decent chance, but not enough to warrant the need for an express start from their opposition.

And that was how it proved with Warwickshire going off at a slower pace, making sure they protected their wickets. At 10 overs, their 52-0 compared to the Royals' 67-1, so the chasers ahead on wickets, behind on runs. However, by the time they lost their second batsman in the 18th over, their 91-2 compared to Hampshire's 104-2 - the Royals seemingly ahead, but the Bears having the advantage of knowing what they needed to score.

The match appeared to swing in the South Coast side's favour in the 26th and 27th over when, with an Ian Bell-Tim Ambrose (26) parternship just two runs short of 50, Chris Wood saw off the latter, magnificently caught behind by Michael Bates, then the Ervine-Adams combination wove their magic for the Royals, the captain catching his opposite number, Jim Troughton, off his colleague's bowling; Warwickshire 144-4.

Some excellent fielding on the boundary from Carberry to prevent a boundary made the Hampshire fans cheer louder but their counterparts were similarly encouraged when Bell brought up his 50 (61balls, four fours and one six) in the 31st over.

An excellent powerplay over, full of yorkers, from Kabir Ali (right) followed as well as a marginal stumping decision given in favour of Clarke but what was very clear was that the pressure was on the Bears. What they really needed, however, was the wicket of Bell. 

But when they got it with three overs to go the England International had scored 81 and Man of the Match awards were waiting if his team could score the 27 needed off the final 18 balls.

With fellow ODI player, Chris Woakes and Blackwell at the crease they took their side to within seven of victory with six balls to go. Who to bowl the final over? Adams, perhaps inspired by Ali's earlier powerplay heroics, put Hampshire's own man with ODI experience into the attack. The next four balls went 1, 1, wicket, dot; the Bears needing five off two.

New man, Carter struck a four and all of Lord's fell silent, the weight of expectation too much to bear. Too much, that is, except for Ali and Bates. A full toss was missed by the batsman, Bates took it beautifully and whipped the bails off to make sure the ball was dead and no run could be taken. Cue rapture, cue delerium, cue mayhem; the Royals go marching on, on, on.

 

Words: Simon Vincent
Images: LMI Photography

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