Lumb Has Spitfires In His Sights

A look ahead to Sunday's Clydesdale Bank 40 match against Kent Spitfires at Canterbury.

Kent Spitfires v Hampshire Royals
Clydesdale Bank 40
Sunday 25th July 2010 (13.45 start)
Canterbury

Royals’ fans will be boosted by the news that England’s t20 World Cup winner, Michael Lumb returns to the squad for Sunday’s game having been rested for three weeks. Lumb has put in a string of good performances in the Second XI on his way back to full fitness, scoring 67 against MCC Universities and 48 against Kent.

It’ll act as something of a consolation following the news earlier in the week that club captain Dimitri Mascarenhas and vice-captain Nic Pothas have both been ruled out for the season. Dominic Cork is expected to continue as captain in their absence.

The silver lining to that cloud is that Royals’ fans will once again see young wicketkeeper, Michael Bates get a start for the first team. He impressed against Sussex in the Friends Provident t20 Cup last Sunday.

Kevin Pietersen will not play despite being made available by England. Hampshire have decided to show faith in their young, aspiring England players instead. Abdul Razzaq and Dan Christian also miss out as they are only registered for t20.

The Opposition:

Whereas the Royals have had a week off, the Spitfires come into the match off the back of a tough four-day game against Somerset.

In addition, they are likely to be without captain Rob Key who broke his finger during Kent’s previous County Championship outing – a match they lost to Hampshire at The Rose Bowl by a huge innings and 111 runs.

It’s not all doom and gloom for the Spitfires, though, who have Darren Stevens, James Tredwell and Amjad Khan back from international duty – however briefly that may be (the next England squad is announced on Sunday morning).

The match is the first time the two teams have met in the competition this season, however the limited-overs omens are good – Kent are one of only two teams (the other being Gloucestershire) to have lost home and away to the Royals in the Friends Provident t20 Cup.

 

Hampshire Squad:

4 Jimmy Adams 6  Michael Lumb 7  Sean Ervine 12  Dominic Cork 14  James Vince 15  Michael Carberry

16 Michael Bates 19 Danny Briggs 20 Chris Benham 25 Chris Wood 27  Neil McKenzie 38  Hamza Riazzudin

This season we will be commentating live on all matches on Twitter and Facebook. You can keep up with all the action as it happens by clicking on the following links:

 

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