Essex Eagles | Varun Chopra (6), Adam Wheater (31), Dan Lawrence (28), Ravi Bopara (25), Ryan ten Doeschate* (27), Ashar Zaidi (99), James Foster+ (7), Paul Walter (22), Simon Harmer (11), Mohammad Amir (5), Matt Dixon (30).
Hampshire | James Vince, Rilee Roussouw, Michael Carberry, Tom Alsop, Shahid Afridi, George Bailey, Lewis McManus, Gareth Berg, Kyle Abbott, Mason Crane, Reece Topley.
Umpires | David Millns & Michael Burns
Toss | Essex Eagles won the toss and chose to field
Match Highlights
Close of Play Report
Ravi Bopara and Adam Wheater shared the major honours as Essex got back on the winning trail with a crushing 7 wickets victory over Hampshire in th NatWest T20 Blast clash at The Cloudfm County Ground.
Replying to a total of 124 for 9, the Eagles reached the target with 6 overs to spare to record only their second success in this season’s competition.
Bopara produced a superb exhibition of accuracy and variation to end with personal figures of 4 for 19 from his four overs while Wheater, opening the innings against his former county, hit 44 not out.
To say Hampshire collapsed is putting it mildly. Their capitulation after being put in to bat was nothing short of pathetic after James Vince and Michael Carberry posted the 50 in the sixth over for the loss of one wicket.
That encouraging start was based on off-spinner Simon Harmer being hammered for 24 in his first over. But once Bopara arrived on the scene, Essex were to take full control.
He got rid of Vince (29) and Carberry (30) and followed up those successes by accounting for Tom Alsop and Lewis McManus for 9 and 5 respectively.
Hampshire were so poor that they lost their last seven wickets while 57 runs were added in 11 overs and they failed to record a single boundary after the seventh over of their innings.
Paul Walter shared the bowling honours with Bopara with 2 for 20 and was then able to sit back and watch Essex, who were missing Tom Westley because of a sickness bug, coast to victory.
After Varun Chopra went in the second over with only 6 on the board, Wheater and Dan Lawrence plundered 76 in eight overs. Of those, Lawrence hammered 47 from 33 deliveries with the help of 7 fours and a six – his best score to date in this format – before he gave a return catch to Shahid Afridi.
Ashar Zaidi scored 17, including two sixes off Afridi and his departure paved the way for Bopara to seal victory by smashing Gareth Berg over the ropes while making 11 from 6 balls and taking the home side to 129 for 3.
Wheater’s composed innings spanning 32 balls contained 6 fours and his partnership with Zaidi advanced the total by 31 in 4 overs.
It all left the Eagles going into Sunday’s battle with Glamorgan at Cardiff on Sunday in good spirits as they go in search of a revenge for the defeat they suffered a week earlier.
Interval report
Ravi Bopara claimed four wickets as Essex restricted Hampshire to 124 for 9 in their NatWest T20 Blast battle at the Cloudfm County Ground.
He picked up his successes at a cost of only 19 runs to leave the Eagles favourites to gain only their second victory in this season’s competition.
In the face of Bopara’s accuracy and variation, Hampshire completely lost their way after reaching 50 in the sixth over for the loss of only one wicket.
James Vince (29), Michael Carberry (30), Tom Alsop (9) and Lewis McManus (5) were snared by Bopara while Paul Walter sent back Rilee Roussouw (4) at a cost of 20 runs.
Hampshire collapsed in embarrassing style after their encouraging start, one in which they plundered 24 from the fourth over of the innings and sent down by Simon Harmer.
So inept were their efforts that they did not find the boundary after the seventh over.
Vince and Carberry were the only batsmen to provide much resistance, putting on 47 in six overs before Bopara embarked upon his destructive spell.
The visitors were 77 for 3 at the halfway stage of their innings but failed to find any acceleration thereafter.
