Lancashire cruised through to the final of the Natwest t20 Blast with a 41-run victory over Hampshire in the second semi final at Edgbaston in a rain-affected match.
Ashwell Prince led Lancashire's innings with an unbeaten 72 from 53 balls after the Lightning had fallen to 6/2, before a rain delay allowed them to regroup. Prince and Karl Brown (41) then added 69 runs for the third-wicket partnership as Lancashire finished with 160/5 from 19 overs.
In reply, Hampshire were the victims of a revised target on Duckworth Lewis and failed to chase 143 in 16 overs despite a determined 53 from Jimmy Adams, as they were bowled out for 101 with 11 balls remaining.
Lancashire made the worst possible start, losing the in-form Tom Smith off the first delivery of the innings, as he was trapped lbw by Will Smith (3-15) and Usman Khawaja's edge found Sean Ervine at first slip, Chris Wood claiming the Australian's wicket.
The the first of two rain delays in this match allowed Lancashire to reassess as they fought back well to recover their chances of proceeding to the final. As it had at the start of the innings, one wicket brought another.
Lancashire lost Brown and Jos Buttler (1) in quick succession, stumbling to 74/4, but Prince began to accelerate after this setback as he reached his fifty in 37 balls in an innings which contained three fours and as many sixes.
Now joined by Lancashire captain, Paul Horton (19), Prince became the backbone of the Lightning's innings as the pair added 47 for the fifth-wicket to help their side towards an imposing target before Steven Croft made a quick-fire 22 from 12 balls.
A revised total of 143 meant that two-time winners Hampshire would need a run rate of more than nine runs per over from the start of their run-chase and the loss of openers James Vince and Michael Carberry proved crucial to Lancashire's success.
Both batsmen fell with the score at 11 as James Anderson claimed the wicket of Hampshire's captain, Vince for just one run and Carberry joined him soon after when he was caught at wide mid-on by Tom Smith off Steven Croft (2-11).
Adams proved to be the only Hampshire batsmen capable of sticking around for the fight as his side lost Owais Shah, Will Smith and Sean Ervine for low scores. Having already claimed the wicket of Shah (7), Stephen Parry (2-22) removed Matt Coles caught and bowled for no score and Adam Wheater fell to Kabir Ali with Hampshire wavering on 77/7.
Hampshire's slim hopes now rested on Adams, who matched Prince's efforts by reaching his half-century in 37 deliveries, but when he was dismissed by Anderson (2-24) the innings was all-but over, leaving Jordan Clark to remove Chris Wood with his first delivery.
No comments:
Post a Comment