Hampshire Hawks v Essex Eagles
Vitality Blast
The Ageas Bowl
Team News:
Hampshire Hawks: James Vince (c), D’Arcy Short, Joe Weatherley, Colin de Grandhomme, James Fuller, Liam Dawson, Lewis McManus (wk), Chris Wood, Scott Currie, Mason Crane, Brad Wheal.
Essex Eagles: Tom Westley, Adam Wheater (wk), Dan Lawrence, Michael Pepper, Jimmy Neesham, Ryan ten Doeschate, Paul Walter, Simon Harmer (c), Aron Nijjar, Shane Snater, Sam Cook.
Match Details:
Umpires: Neil Bainton & Ian Gould
Toss: Hampshire Hawks, who elected to bat
Result: Hampshire Hawks won by 18 runs
Match Report:
Essex Eagles interest in this season’s Vitality Blast competition came to an end when they suffered an 18 run defeat to Hampshire Hawks.
James Vince underpinned a challenging Hampshire total of 171-8 with England international Vince contributing 63 from 46 balls whilst D’Arcy Short and Colin de Grandhomme weighed in with 30 and 32 respectively.
Sam Cook proved the most successful Eagles bowler with 3/34 and then despite 60 from Dan Lawrence and 39 by Tom Westley, the Eagles were bowled out for 153 in 19.2 overs.
The Eagles, despite losing Adam Wheater for a duck, made good progress as Westley and Lawrence carried their score to 85 just before the halfway stage before Westley was stumped stepping down the wicket to Mason Crane.
But there was little meaningful contribution from elsewhere.
Jimmy Neehsam was bowled for 2 whilst Michael Pepper was caught behind for 3 to leave the Eagles 105-4 in the 14th over.
3 more wickets fell in the next 3 overs including Lawrence, who was caught by the wicket-keeper off Scott Currie and with 4 overs remaining, the Eagles required another 45 with 4 wickets intact.
13 runs were collected from the next two overs then Aron Nijjar became a fourth victim for keeper McManus and 18 were needed from the final over.
However, with the first ball, Brad Wheal bowled Shane Snater and repeated the effort with his next delivery as Cook had his stumps rearranged to leave the Eagles licking their wounds and the Hawks still holding aspirations of a quarter-final place.
Vince showed his quality timing the ball superbly and hitting cleanly in an innings that included 1 six and 6 fours. He and Australian Short got the innings off to a fine start after the home side had won the toss and were not parted until the start of the ninth over by which time, they had put 69 runs on the board.
It was Aron Nijjar that got the breakthrough when Short, on 30, reverse swept the ball into the safe hands of Cook. And 2 deliveries later and without addition, the same pair teamed up to account for Liam Dawson.
Having arrived at the halfway point of their innings on 86-2, the Hawks were contained by their own shortcomings as each of the 8 wickets to fall were caught, 7 in the deep.
Vince drove Simon Harmer to Jimmy Neesham at deep mid-wicket then Colin de Grandhomme’s promising innings of 32 was concluded by Ryan ten Doeschate with a diving catch at deep mid-wicket.
That left the Hawks 132-4 at the start of the 17th over.
Harmer claimed Joe Weatherley for 10 whilst James Fuller found the tallest man in the side when driving a ball from Shane Snater to Paul Walter at deep mid-off.
In the final over, Cook collected 2 wickets in as many deliveries having Chris Wood and Lewis McManus, who had clubbed 2 sixes, caught for 1 and 25.
Cook finished with 3 for 34 taking his haul of victims to 18 in the competition whilst Harmer returned 2 for 26 and Nijjar 2 for 30.
