BRAD Wheal admitted “it has been a tough start to the season” but Hampshire Hawks have turned around their T20 Blast form.

Wheal posted career-best figures of five for 38 as the Ageas Bowl side defeated Glamorgan by nine runs in Cardiff on Friday.

It means Hampshire have made four wins in four after losing the opening four matches of the 20-over campaign.

Having been put into bat, the visitors eked out 134 for four in the face of a strong Glamorgan bowling display, with Joe Weatherley top scoring with an unbeaten 46.

Some big blows from Dan Douthwaite at the back end of the Glamorgan innings gave them hope but the home side were bowled out for 125 off 19.5 overs.

“It has been a tough start to the season, but the boys have turned it around nicely so it was good to get another win on the road here,” Wheal said, speaking after the match. The pitch wasn’t ideal for us.

“Obviously quite tough to start batting on that, we had to sort of assess the situation and see what sort of score would be competitive and luckily the boys put together a score that we could defend.”

Hampshire are now fifth in the south group of the T20 Blast after eight matches, while Glamorgan sit in second-bottom with just two wins.

Glamorgan’s Andrew Salter added: “Bit of a tough one to take. Felt we played some good cricket in patches there but we just didn’t put the full performance together.

“Really disappointing, a gutting feeling really. It is a tough one to reflect on so soon and rationalise. Overall we were short today and it is disappointing.”

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