Hants draw Northants after reaching Twenty20 quarter-finals (From Daily Echo)

Hants draw Northants after reaching Twenty20 quarter-finals

9:00am Monday 29th June 2009 in

• Skip social links
• Print
• Email
• Comments(1)

After five years of Twenty20 hurt, Hampshire will attempt to reach their first Finals Day next month.

Outstanding all-round performances from Sean Ervine and Dimi Mascarenhas secured a six-wicket win, with five balls to spare, against Essex at Chelmsford.

Hampshire are now away to Northants in the Twenty20 quarter-finals on July 29 and, just as importantly, they are assured of a place in the first division of next season’s Pro20 competition.

Until yesterday afternoon, Hampshire had never won a Twenty20 game at Chelmsford but Mascaranhas’s men were always in control against an Essex side without Alastair Cook, Ravi Bopara and Danish Kaneria.

Mascarenhas (2-14) and Ervine (3-26) excelled with the ball as Essex were restricted to 149-6 after winning the toss.

Then Hampshire’s magnificent duo put on 66 in seven overs.

Hampshire were relieved to be facing an Essex attack without Kaneria, who departed for Sri Lanka with Pakistan’s Test squad the day before.

Ervine (37* from 22 balls) and Mascarenhas (27* from 17 balls) capitalised after coming together when Hampshire slipped to 87-4 in the 13th over.

Jimmy Adams (17) was caught at mid-wicket in the fourth over of the Hampshire reply but Michael Carberry responded by twice depositing David Masters over mid wicket for six.

After Michael Lumb (26) slog swept slow left armer Grant Flower’s third ball to long leg, Chelmsford was greeted with the bizarre sight of Imran Tahir strolling to the middle.

Carberry (39) looked as surprised as anyone. He soon holed out to deep mid-wicket - and Tahir (2) drove Flower’s next ball straight to long off.

But Mascarenhas and Ervine then blitzed five sixes between them.

Captain Mascarenhas was dropped on seven by Jamie Middlebrook, who let the ball slip through his fingers on the long-leg boundary for the first of the Hampshire captain’s two maximums.

Ervine pulled Napier for the biggest hit of the day over mid-wicket and drove his former Zimbabwe teammate Grant Flower emphatically on to the upper deck of the main stand.

Mascarenhas drilled Phillips for his second maximum and Ervine finished the chase by smashing a Napier full toss for his third six, over long on.

Without England’s Cook and Bopara, Essex had been grateful for Napier’s return to form and a late blitz from Holland’s Ryan ten Doeschate, whose 22-ball 43 gave the partisan home fans hope after a typically miserly opening spell from Mascarenhas.

The Hampshire captain frustrated Varum Chopra (1) into skying to long on, where Ervine held on and Mark Pettini (8) was out in similar fashion.

Napier, an unused member of England’s World Twenty20 squad, had been in appalling form for his county in the shortest format.

He went into yesterday’s game having scored just 12 runs in five Twenty20 innings, but produced a 33-ball 47 when his side needed him most.

Napier went past his Twenty20 aggregate for the season when he pulled Tremlett over mid-wicket for the first of his three sixes.

But Ervine also stemmed the flow of runs.

Former Kent left-hander Matt Walker (7), so often a thorn in Hampshire’s side, skied Ervine’s first delivery straight to Tremlett at long on.

Essex limped to 46-3 after their first ten overs, which included just three boundaries. If Napier had not produced the second highest Twenty20 score of his career they would have been in real trouble.

Having been signed by the IPL’s Mumbai Indians and picked by England on the strength of his unbeaten 152 from just 58 balls against Sussex last year, he was a due a big score. He launched Ervine for six over wide long on and his third six, against Tahir over mid-wicket, took him to his second highest Twenty20 total.

Then Ervine took two big wickets in his final over, the 15th.

Flower (9) was caught at short extra and it sounded like all of Chelmsford sighed when Napier was pouched by a diving Tahir at short fine leg.

But Ten Doeschate and James Foster smashed 60 runs in five overs during a violent sixth-wicket stand.

Ten Doeschate drilled Cork for a flat six over extra cover before destroying Tremlett’s bowling in the penultimate over, which cost a crushing 25 runs.

The Dutchman hit Tremlett for a straight six, three fours and a single before Foster completed the over with his only maximum, over long off.

But an excellent final over from Cork, which ended with the dismissal of Ten Doeschate, kept Hampshire firmly in control.

The Twenty20 quarter finals will be played from July 27-29