Hampshire Royals t20 Champions Again

Aug 25 2012

Hampshire Royals v Yorkshire Carnegie
Friends Life t20 Final
Saturday 25 August
The SWALEC Stadium, Cardiff

Summary: Hampshire Royals beat Yorkshire Carnegie by 10 runs
Hampshire Royals: 150-6
Yorkshire Carnegie: 140-8
Scorecard

Royals Team
Adams*, Vince, Carberry, McKenzie, Katich, Ervine, Dawson, Mascarenhas, Wood, Bates†, Briggs
Yorkshire Team
 Gale, Jaques, Root, Bairstow, Miller, Ballance, Bresnan, Pyrah, Rafiq, Sidebottom, Ashraf

Three Chris Wood wickets for just three runs in the final over ensured the Hampshire Royals did it again; they scooped the Friends Life t20 trophy for the second time, booking themselves a Champions League spot in the process.

It was a performance, and a Finals Day, that perfectly summed up their entire T20 campaign. There were no star performances, just a great team spirit, a battle fought bravely against the odds and - as is, by now, a customary part of any Hampshire victory - a nailbiting finish!

Having scored 150-6, they had looked up against it when the Tykes' South African import, David Miller (72*) started opening up his shoulders.

But, needing to prevent 15 runs coming off the final over, their faith in home-grown youth once again paid off as a 22-year old left arm seamer from Basingstoke stepped up to the plate to win it for his team.

Credit must go to the whole squad who were all at the SWALEC except overseas superstar Glenn Maxwell as well as backroom staff, coaches and the fans who all made this result a special, special occasion.

 

Having won the toss, Hampshire broke with tradition, electing to bat first on a wicket that had been slow to score off all day and looked like it wasn't going to get any quicker. And so it proved as the Royals reached 26 off the first five overs, losing Michael Carberry (8) in the process.

But then Jimmy Adams gave Rich Pyrah a less-than-friendly welcome, driving two of his balls stright back past him and, frustrated, two misfields from the Tykes allowed Hampshire to take back the initiative. They duely went through the 50 in the ninth over - the same over in which they had brought it up in the Semi-Final.

But just when it looked like they were going to push on with Adams (43) smashing the first six of the match to long on, the left-hander holed out to Gary Ballance off Pyrah and replacement Neil McKenzie (4) was trapped lbw by Azeem Rafiq; the Royals 76-3 in the 12th over and in danger of losing pace.

What better time, then, to call on Semi-Final hero, Sean Ervine (21)? The Zimbabwe-born all-rounder came in and looked like he'd never been away, striking only his fourth delivery for a massive six over long on. And that gave James Vince (36), who'd been at the crease more than 10 overs, the confidence to hit out, striking the first boundary of his innings off England star Tim Bresnan to bring up the team 100.

Though both would go, two beautiful boundaries from Simon Katich (25) and a well-run three in the last over would guide his side to a total of 150-6 at the interval.

It looked a good total - locals told us par for this ground, except that this was a slow wicket -  and very quickly it looked like it had to be, as Yorkshire took 11 off the first over and remained fractionally ahead of Hampshire on the over comparison after the opening powerplay.

Crucially, though, Dimi Mascarenhas (2-20) was battling through the pain of a shoulder injury and, having already got Andrew Gale (15) to chop on, he clean bowled Joe Root (7) before Liam Dawson dismissed Phil Jaques (11) - all three of them snared playing across the line. Suddenly, at the end of the seventh over, Yorkshire's 41-3 compared unfavourably to Hampshire's 43-1 at the same stage and the South Coast side had the wind in their sails once more.

However, Jonny Bairstow is a man in form and he was at the crease. Coming off the back of a Man of the Match Semi-Final performance and excellent knocks for England, the Royals knew his wicket was key and, backing himself in typical fashion, Danny Briggs entered the attack. Having bowled four dots to David Miller, Briggs then seemed to give the South African a gimme for a single, bringing Bairstow on to strike. Then, bowling round the wicket, he gave one a little bit of flight, got it to grip ever so slightly and found Bairstow's edge. It showed maturity beyond Briggs' years and left the Northerners four wickets down, yet to go through the 50 mark and already half-way through their innings.

 

However, as the phrase goes, "from the sublime to the ridiculous" as, next over, Miller clipped Dawson to McKenzie at midwicket. Hampshire's South African reeled off celebrating only for the umpires to rule that they couldn't conclusively give it out and Miller celebrated by striking three sixes in four balls. 

From that point on Miller was always the danger man. He took further sixes off Briggs and off Wood. A diving catch from Briggs off Ervine removed Ballance for 7, but this only brought Bresnan to join Miller at the crease and Yorkshire reached their 100 off 96 balls.

With two overs to go Carnegie needed just 21 runs but Briggs kept a cool head and prevented any boundaries being taken. Hampshire's fate rested in Wood's hands and he did not disappoint when Bresnan skied a delivery to Ervine at mid on. But although the batsmen crossed and Miller was on strike, the next three deliveries went for singles before Wood ripped out Pyrah's stumps.

The last ball was a formality as Yorkshire needed 11 from it but for good measure the Ervine/Wood combination did for Rafiq and Hampshire won by 10 runs.

Words: Simon Vincent / Jane Cable
Images: LMI Photography