Hampshire v Nottinghamshire Pro40

The three runs scored off the first two overs of Hampshire’s innings gave The Rose Bowl crowd basking in the autumn sunshine little indication of what was to come. But in Darren Pattinson’s second over Michael Lumb broke loose with a six so huge it completely unnerved the bowler, who promptly no balled and the subsequent free hit was knocked back over his head for four.

This set the tone for what was to follow and by the end of the tenth over Hampshire had put on 78 runs with Lumb leading the way on 47. Lumb’s fifty came up shortly afterwards, with a well timed two off Jason Brown in an over that went for 12 runs in total, leaving the Outlaws little option but to go for the spin of Samit Patel. Although this slowed the run rate it was Kevin O’Brien, bowling from the pavilion end, who ended Lumb’s dominance when he was out stumped. His innings of 61 had taken only 47 balls, with 10 fours and a six, his partnership with Jimmy Adams achieving a run rate of 7.5 an over.

It was now Adams’ turn to accelerate and he showed his intent with two fine fours off the first balls of the next over. His next boundary left new batting partner James Vince flat on the floor as he made a spectacular dive to avoid the speeding ball. Adams continued to show his liking for Patel’s bowling when he brought up his fifty with a hard run two. In the context of the game it was positively sedate, taking 56 balls, with 8 fours.

Hampshire were making batting look all too easy, with Vince the third player to reach fifty, in 39 balls and with 5 fours, pulled and driven to all corners of the ground, mainly off Luke Fletcher. But the party was almost over, when, in the 28th over Outlaws’ captain Chris Read turned to his seventh bowler, rookie Akhil Patel, Samit’s younger brother, who promptly took a wicket with his first List A ball. Vince was caught by Carter running in from back of square leg for 55.
Patel was to prove that is wasn’t simply beginner’s luck when in his next over he had Adams caught by Hales close to the boundary for 73. In the course of the innings he had made his 1,000th List A run. By this time Notts had a Patel at each end, and not to be outdone Samit snared Chris Benham lbw for 8, leaving Hampshire 227 for 4 in the 33rd over.

The Hawks were keeping the rate above 7 an over and Sean Ervine carried on in the same vein, making a busy 31 off 35 balls; unusually for him without a single boundary. He was out in the 38th over, looking to slog Fletcher across the line. Dawson made 6, losing his wicket to Fletcher in the last over of the game, with Chris Tremlett finishing on 2 and Nic Pothas on 23.
Hampshire set Nottingham a total of 282 to win.

Hampshire made a bold decision to open the bowling with youngsters Hamza Riazuddin and spinner Danny Briggs and as early as the 7th over it looked like a masterstroke. Mark Wagh did manage to spectacularly hoist a Briggs delivery over the mid off rope towards the pavilion for a six but the very next ball he was walking that way himself having scored only 13. Briggs had cleaned bowled him to take his first ever List A wicket.

Riazuddin then sent Matthew Wood (18) packing when a short delivery deflected up off the bat for Jimmy Adams to make a stunning diving catch at point that left Nottinghamshire 36 for 2. Samit Patel and Alex Hales began shoring up the visitor’s innings with a couple of well-struck fours but Chris Tremlett and Sean Ervine came into the attack and the latter was an instant success by clean bowling Hales for 19 for his 150th List A wicket. This prompted Akhil Patel to join his elder brother at the crease.

In the 18th over the two Patels got into a strange mix up and Akhil was eventually run out by Adams’ quick thinking for just 6 runs. The visitors finally reached the 100 mark in the 21st over with a single from the remaining Patel. The next ball saw another wicket tumble when Ervine cleaned bowled Chris Read for 10 – his second wicket of the match.

Imran Tahir then got in with the act when Patel (28), attempting to slog, hit straight to Riazuddin at deep mid-wicket to leave Nottinghamshire 104 for 6. Ervine continued his devastating spell when he took out Luke Fletcher’s middle stump for just 3. Briggs then caught Darren Pattinson (5) off his own bowling after the batsman tamely knocked it back.

Andy Carter (7) skied Tahir for Tremlett to catch out on the boundary. Kevin O’Brien smacked a six over Tahir’s head before airing the next delivery to Nic Pothas to catch for a deserved Hampshire win, bowling Nottinghamshire out for 139. The Hawks won by 142 runs.