Vince 50 Eases Royals to Two out of Two

Hampshire beat Surrey by 7 wickets in their Friends Life t20 match at The Rose Bowl

HAMPSHIRE ROYALS v SURREY Lions
Friends Life t20
friday 3 June 2011
The Rose Bowl

Summary: Hampshire beat Surrey by 7 wickets (19 ovs)
Surrey Lions: 140-7
Hampshire Royals: 144-3
Click here for a full scorecard

Hampshire Team
Adams, Lumb, Vince, McKenzie, Howell, Mascarenhas, Cork*, Pothas⁺, Briggs, Wood, Tahir

Surrey Team

Hamilton-Brown*, Davies⁺, Roy, Maynard, de Bruyn, Spreigel, Schofield, Batty, Nannes, Linley, Dernbach

James Vince stroked a boundary to bring up his half-century and win a second Friends Life t20 match for his side in less than a week on a hot Friday evening at The Rose Bowl.

His unbeaten knock won him a Man of the Match accolade but, more importantly, guided the title holders to an impressive seven-wicket victory over the in-form Surrey Lions with six balls to spare.

Earlier, a devastating spell of bowling from Captain, Dominic Cork, set the tone as he claimed the prized wicket of Lions danger man Stephen Davies (0) with the very first ball of the match – much to the delight of the home faithful. That, coupled with a tight spell of spin bowling from Imran Tahir (2-15), restricted the Lions to 140-7.

And good partnerships between Michael Lumb and Jimmy Adams (42) as well as Vince and Neil McKenzie (83) saw the team most of the way with the minimum of fuss. The result leaves Hampshire top of the table having well and truly wiped out their starting two-point deficit.

Friends Provident t20 Group Table – Game Two

Having won the toss, Cork chose to field on what was a good all-round Rose Bowl track. But the Lions, fresh from their eight-wicket thumping of Gloucestershire on Thursday, could not repeat the trick. After Cork’s stunning opening delivery which cleaned up the stumps of former England wicketkeeper Davies – it was the skipper’s early choice to introduce spinner Danny Briggs which provided the second breakthrough.

A cleverly flighted delivery by the 20-year-old deceived opener Rory-Hamilton Brown (19), while fit-again Dimitri Mascarenhas, looking back to his best, tied things up nicely from the other end.

Throughout, Hampshire Royals looked sharp in the field and their good work was rewarded when Jason Roy (17) was run-out by a neat Adams throw in the seventh over.

But it was an inspired spell of bowling from Imran Tahir which allowed the Royals to take control of the opposition’s middle-order. The South African first had Tim Maynard (3) caught at long-off before Matthew Spreigel (7) was then stumped by the quick thinking Nic Pothas.

However, Hampshire did not have it all their own way. A 38-ball 52 from Zander de Bruyn (which included three fours and two sixes) helped the Lions to recover from 77-5 to 125-6.

However, once his superb innings was ended by an outfield throw from Benny Howell – Surrey struggled to add to their modest total following a tight burst of death bowling from paceman Chris Wood (1-19).

With the Lions boasting the fast bowling talent of Australian overseas signing Dirk Nannes and England bowler Jade Dernbach it was never going to be a walk in the park to chase down the total.

But under the floodlights, and with the Hampshire crowd in strong voice, opener Lumb (36) injected the early impetus to get Hampshire's innings off to a superb start, ably supported by Adams (12).

And the home side stuck to the task well with Vince (51*) and McKenzie’s (32) massive partnership proving key. As Surrey manoeuvred their bowling unit in search of the partnership breaker – Vince, in particular, wasted no time in racing through the gears. Playing all around the wicket, he struck five fours to take his side from 52-2 after 5.5 overs to the victory target of 141 with eight balls left to spare.

Hampshire look to continue their excellent start against Kent at Tunbridge Wells on Sunday.

Words: Stuart Appleby
Images: Oliver Zee

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