T20 South: Hampshire win to virtually guarantee place in last eight
Friday 24 July 2015 01:09, UK
Hampshire all-but booked their place in the quarter-finals of the T20 Blast with a six-run victory over Somersetat the Ageas Bowl on Thursday evening.
Yasir Arafat was the star with the ball, helping the home side defend what looked a modest total of 143-7 by taking 4-37 in his four overs to leave the visitors - already out of the competition - short in their chase.
Arafat was given fine support at the death by spin duo Will Smith and Danny Briggs and barring a huge win for Glamorgan over Gloucestershire on Friday, and wins for Essex and Sussex, the south coast side will be in the last eight for the seventh year in a row.
After electing to bat, Hampshire set off at breakneck speed courtesy of James Vince and Michael Carberry, who hit the coffee stand with one huge pull off the hip.
The former England opener reached his fourth half-century of the competition this season in just 29 balls, but with all seemingly set fair, Jamie Overton wonderfully ran out James Vince off his own bowling at 80-1.
Adam Wheater was then out reverse sweeping to short third man first ball before Carberry holed out to long-on for 57 and when Owais Shah and Smith were both bowled by the impressive Max Waller (3-17) the hosts were 110-5.
That became 112-6 when Joe Gatting took on a Jim Allenby misfield and was caught short, leaving Gareth Berg (21no) to steer the innings to its conclusion.
Somerset's promising reply was slowed when Arafat found Jim Allenby's leading edge and Vince plucked a catch out of the air to remove debutant Adam Hose (20) inside three balls at 37-2.
All the Somerset batsmen continued to get starts, but regular wickets continued to peg them back - Briggs bowling James Hildreth for 19 after Tom Cooper had played on to Smith for 27.
Arafat bowled Gregory with the final ball of the 18th over and Jamie Overton departed for a duck in the next to effectively end the contest. Somerset finished on 137-8.
Surrey slumped to a 43-run defeat to Middlesex at a packed Lord's as their bid to reach the quarter-finals stalled at the crucial moment.
Having gone into the game on the back of four wins out of five, they never recovered from losing four wickets for 33 runs during the six-over powerplay as they chased Middlesex's total of 185-5.
Kumar Sangakkara top-scored with 32, but Surrey must now beat Sussex at the Oval on Friday to have any chance of qualifying, with results elsewhere on a busy night key to their destiny.
Middlesex's 185-5 was built around a third half-century of the competition for John Simpson, who top-scored with 53, and a punishing fourth-wicket stand of 77 from 39 balls between Eoin Morgan (48) and James Franklin (41), who combined to take 40 from the 18th and 19th overs.
Franklin hit four successive boundaries off Sam Curran in the 18th, before Morgan cut loose in the next, smashing two sixes off Jade Dernbach through mid-wicket, before Franklin belted two more boundaries.
Both fell to Azhar Mahmood in the final over but the damage had been done and Surrey's early collapse ensured they never got close to challenging.
Steven Finn (3-17) was the first to strike, removing Jason Roy in the first over and once Mitch McClenaghan had Steven Davies caught in the deep, Finn claimed Ben Foakes to leave Surrey 26-3 from 4.3 overs.
That became 33-4 when Rory Burns was tempted to drive at a wide one and was caught at wide mid-off and although Sangakkara offered brief hope - hitting off-spinner Ollie Rayner for six - the chase was effectively done when he holed out to long-on off Neil Dexter (3-12) in the 11th over. Surrey eventually made 142-9.
