Superb Hawks too much for Brown Caps at Rose Bowl

31 May 2009

Surrey Brown Caps completed the first phase of their Twenty20 Cup programme with a disappointing loss to the Hampshire Hawks at the Rose Bowl.

Despite scoring a healthy total of 172/8 and a superb knock of 73 from 47 balls by Man of the Match Mark Ramprakash, Surrey were always under pressure chasing the host’s huge total of 191/6 and fell eighteen runs short of their target to slip to a record of two wins and three defeats from their first five games of the tournament.

Hampshire won the toss and batted first, producing an innings of brutality and energy that at times was a master class in Twenty20 batting. Michael Lumb and Jimmy Adams got the innings off to absolutely flying start, putting on 92 for the first wicket.

Adams was the first to hit out, sending the last ball of Matthew Spriegel’s opening over into the stands for a big six and – after a short break for a great second over from Andre Nel – the pair tucked into the third over from Jade Dernbach, which went to all parts of the Rose Bowl for a total of nineteen runs.

Nel’s second over then went for another fifteen runs and Adams and Lumb were purring, sending Grant Elliott for another boundary in the next over and Chris Schofield into the stands for a big six off the second ball of his first over and down the ground from the last to total 68 runs from the six over power play.

Elliott and Schofield returned for more economical second overs, spoiled only by the occasional six, but Adams fell before the half way mark, coming back for a second run and being run out by a fantastic throw from Jade Dernbach at deep cover.

Captain Afzaal introduced himself into the attack and after being hit for two boundaries early on, struck fourth ball when another superb throw from Dernbach at short third man demolished the stumps at the bowlers end and ran out Michael Lumb as he was backing up.

With the two openers back in the dugout, the Hampshire innings slowed slightly with the reintroduction of Matthew Spriegel but Sean Ervine continued to score quickly, hitting the off spinner for a six and a four before trying to find the boundary three balls in a row and being bowled for 20.

Carberry and Chris Benham continued to score before Benham was caught on the deep square leg boundary by Stewart Walters off a slower ball from Grant Elliott. Carberry was next to go, superbly caught by Spriegel who caught the ball, threw it back into the outfield as he stepped over the boundary, and caught it again when he was safely back inside the boundary ropes.

However, fine late hitting from Liam Dawson and Nick Pothas, particularly brutal on one over from Nel, saw the Hawks to an excellent total of 191/6, one that could have been even higher were not it for a brilliant last over from Schofield, which accounted for Dawson and only went for four runs.

In response, James Benning was sent out to open the batting with Scott Newman but was only able to score two before being bowled by Dominic Cork, who let just three runs be scored off his first two overs.

Newman started strongly though and, with Mark Ramprakash, began the Herculean task of scoring 192 to win. The pair were batting nicely and started finding both the boundary and the stands with regularity. However, Newman tried to take on the arm of Michael Carberry and lost out, brilliantly run out for 26.

Afzaal joined Ramprakash and immediately scored quickly before being caught and bowled by Sean Ervine trying to push an on drive past the bowler and falling for 11 to a diving caught and bowled chance.

Stewart Walters came to the crease and continued his good form in this competition, scoring a run a ball 21 but, with the rate climbing ever higher, he overbalanced trying to get the tricky Imran Tahir away and was stumped by Nick Pothas for 21, being replaced by Grant Elliott with the score on 99.

All the time though, Ramprakash was scoring heavily at the other end, seeing the ball well and running hard to make sure he maximised the benefit of every shot he played, a tactic that worked particularly well with the fleet of foot Elliott at the crease with him.

Ramprakash and Elliott put on nearly fifty together in very quick time but, just as they were beginning to make a successful chase look possible, Elliott reverse swept Imran Tahir straight to Carberry, who took a straightforward catch.

Although Ramprakash continued to push, scoring more big boundaries off Tahir and Liam Dawson, he was running out of partners and whilst Matthew Spriegel scored his seven at a run a ball, the target was looking increasingly far away.

The Brown Caps needed 30 off the final two overs and after some tight bowling by Billy Taylor, Ramprakash tried to turn him around the corner for a fine boundary and only found Imran Tahir, who snapped up the chance, dismissing the Surrey great for 71 off 47 balls.

Chris Schofield was clean bowled first ball and, although Jonathan Batty and Andre Nel never gave up hope, 24 off the last over proved to be too much as Surrey slipped to 173/8 and an eighteen run loss.

After the match Chris Adams gave his thoughts on the first 5 Twenty20 matches to Surrey TV, click here to watch