James Vince, Joe Weatherley set Hampshire up for achievement
Hampshire 178 for 4 (Weatherley 59*, Vince 50) beat Somerset 173 for six (Smeed 52, Kohler-Cadmore 43) by 5 runs
Nathan Ellis produced two gorgeous dying overs to sentence Somerset to their first defeat of this season’s Vitality Blast as Hampshire Hawks made it 4 wins on the bounce.
Hampshire had acquired as much as round par due to James Vince‘s fifth 50-plus rating of the event and Joe Weatherley‘s unbeaten 59.
But Australian fast Ellis went for 3 and 4 within the seventeenth and nineteenth overs to return one for 26, with Scott Currie defending 18 within the last over as Hampshire received by 5 runs.
Hampshire had solely did not defend 178 on the Ageas Bowl as soon as earlier than in T20s however Tom Banton and Smeed had been determined so as to add to the Zak Crawley-inspired Kent eight-wicket destruction in 2020. The duo piled on 69 runs within the powerplay with inventiveness, energy and clear ball placing.
But Liam Dawson discovered a high edge out of Banton – who scored 31 in 21 balls – within the seventh over, just for his alternative Tom Kohler-Cadmore to blast Currie for 3 fours.
Smeed had returned a modest 70 runs in his first six innings of the summer season however dominated with seven fours and a pair of sixes in a 30-ball fifty. But he fell two balls later when slogging Mason Crane to deep mid-wicket.
Sean Dickson misplaced his leg stump to John Turner, though Kohler-Cadmore heated up a lull with two big sixes off Crane within the sixteenth over. But fell to a well-aimed Turner bouncer with 26 wanted off 15 balls.
Aneurin Donald pulled off a shocking catch to ship away Tom Lammonby as Ellis’ nineteenth over solely went for 4 to go away 19 required off the ultimate Currie over.
Lewis Gregory was run out and regardless of nonetheless going for 13, Currie and the Hawks got here out victors to finish Somerset’s six-game successful run.
Having been invited to bat first, Ben McDermott pulled, reduce and ramped a trio of boundaries however fell within the third over to Matt Henry.
After his run of half-centuries was ended by Middlesex on Tuesday, Vince added Somerset to his victims this season, though with barely much less fluency than a few of his imposing knocks earlier within the Blast.
Three fours introduced up 54 for one within the powerplay, with two extra sixes to observe in his 37-ball fifty – though after hitting Roelof van der Merwe again over his head for his second most he did not strike a boundary off his final 14 deliveries earlier than holing out to long-on.
Toby Albert had joined him in a 60 stand earlier than falling to a swing to lengthy on as Somerset took management of the center overs due to Lewis Gregory, Ben Green and van der Merwe’s squeezing.
Weatherley escaped the press firstly by carving van der Merwe twice to the duvet boundary earlier than upping the ante with two swats for six to take him to a 31-ball half-century.
Ross Whiteley had run arduous to assist in a 73-run stand, though he solely personally managed a scratchy 14 off 15 balls. Whiteley was brilliantly caught by Smeed on the boundary earlier than Donald’s looping six over additional cowl took the hosts to 178 for 4.