John Turner stars with three wickets on debut as Hampshire maintain off Middlesex
Hampshire Hawks 164 for six (McDermott 47, Hollman 2-12) beat Middlesex 159 for 7 (Holden 53, Higgins 43, Turner 3-30) by 5 runs
Hampshire seamer John Turner starred with three wickets on his Vitality Blast debut because the defending champions recorded their third straight win, holding off rock-bottom Middlesex at Radlett.
The 22-year-old captured the wicket of Middlesex captain Stephen Eskinazi along with his first ball within the match, ending with 3 for 30 because the Hawks efficiently defended a modest whole of 164 for six.
Max Holden‘s first Blast half-century of the summer season, with 53 from 31 balls, had given the Seaxes hope of lastly breaking their duck within the South Group as he and Ryan Higgins (43 from 35) added 60 for the fourth wicket.
But Hampshire’s dying bowlers held their nerve to make sure the house aspect stay winless within the competitors, equalling their longest shedding begin to a marketing campaign of seven defeats in 2006 and 2009.
Hampshire skipper James Vince, who had smashed a match-winning 88 not out within the sides’ first assembly of the match, missed out this time after driving Josh de Caires’ second ball tamely to mid-off.
But Ben McDermott was quickly into his stride, pummelling Blake Cullen for successive boundaries and dispatching each Tom Helm and de Caires over the fence as he and Toby Albert shared a partnership of 56 from 38.
Luke Hollman‘s tight three-over stint of two for 12 broke the stand, luring Albert right into a mistimed reverse sweep and the leg-spinner additionally prised out the big-hitting McDermott, caught at long-off simply wanting his half-century.
With Joe Weatherley and Aneurin Donald each holing out as de Caires recorded his greatest T20 figures of two for 34, the Hawks had misplaced three wickets for simply 11 runs and so they responded by shifting Chris Wood up the order to No.7.
With Joe Weatherley and Aneurin Donald each holing out as de Caires recorded his greatest T20 figures of two for 34, the Hawks had misplaced three wickets for simply 11 runs and so they responded by shifting Chris Wood up the order to No.7.
That transfer paid off as the short hrashed 31 from 21 and he and Ross Whiteley, with an unbeaten 28 from 20, hauled Hampshire above 150 however Higgins, with 4 consecutive dot balls within the penultimate over, ensured they fell wanting par.
However, their whole regarded greater than substantial after two overs of the Middlesex reply, with simply two extras on the board and each openers again within the pavilion with geese in opposition to their title.
Eskinazi was caught miscuing a pull to midwicket off Turner’s first supply and Joe Cracknell adopted 5 balls later, leg earlier than – however Holden and Pieter Malan kick-started the innings with a stand of 43 from 23.
Malan, having superior to 18 with two highly effective leg-side blows off Wood, tried to do the identical in opposition to Nathan Ellis simply earlier than the tip of the powerplay and was caught within the deep.
Holden displayed a knack of selecting out the gaps, carving Scott Currie to the quilt boundary and clipping his subsequent ball to leg for 4 extra as Middlesex saved tempo with the required run-rate.
The left-hander introduced up his 50 from 26 balls and Higgins was a greater than succesful foil of their partnership, bisecting the leg-side fielders completely to register successive fours off Wood.
But Liam Dawson tilted the competition again in Hampshire’s favour, tempting Holden to top-edge a pull to brief fantastic leg and Turner claimed his third wicket earlier than Vince raced from mid-off and dived to pouch a skier from Higgins.
Despite two boundaries by Martin Andersson to maintain Middlesex in competition, a goal of 15 from the ultimate over proved too steep.