Hampshire Second XI v Essex Second XI
South Group T20 Match, Thursday 19 May
Ageas Bowl, Southampton
Team News:
Essex Second XI: MS Pepper (wk), JS Rymell, ASS Nijjar (c), JA Richards, C Allison, BMJ Allison, Z Akhter, WEL Buttleman, RJ Das, JH Plom, V Hassen
Hampshire Second XI: TJ Prest, TE Albert, FS Middleton, RA Whiteley (c), C Mumford (wk), ARJ Fairfax-Ross, DC Kelly, H Broderick, H Petrie, K Khanna, J Croom
Match Details:
Umpires: S Shanmugam & R Patel
Toss: Hampshire 2nd XI won the toss and elected to bowl
Result: Essex 2nd XI won by 4 runs
Match Report
The first game of a double header against Hampshire Second XI bought great excitement, with it going down to the last ball and Essex coming away with a 4 run win.
After Hampshire had chosen to bowl, Will Buttleman got Essex off to a flyer but fell early; half way through the second over with the score on 25-1. This bought keeper Michael Pepper to the crease, looking in good form from ball one and bringing up his half-century off just 14 balls and the Essex hundred with the first of two consecutive reverse sweep sixes.
But as wickets fell around him, being shared by the Hampshire bowlers, Michael Pepper bought up his rapid century off just 36 balls, which was followed by consecutive sixes before sweeping straight to the man as he fell for 117 off 41 balls. Jamal Richards added runs to aid Essex past 200, as we finished on 234-7 off the 20 Overs.
The second innings saw Hampshire get off to a decent start with both openers getting to 50 before Hassen produced a wonderful caught and bowled to remove the dangerous Tom Prest; adding to this just 2 balls later as he bowled Middleton.
As Hampshire kept up the pressure, Jack Plom would take timely wickets of both Albert and Whiteley to slow the runs. As Hampshire had to rebuild and when Jamal Richards bowled the set batter (Mumford).
Essex looked to be in control but late six hitting from Kelly took the game to the last ball. Hampshire needed to find the boundary off the last ball however Richards bowled a fast legal bouncer through to the keeper to win the game for Essex.
