Hampshire 145 for 0 (Vince 71*, McDermott 69*) beat Sussex 144 (Hudson-Prentice 31*, Dawson 2-14) by ten wickets
Sussex’s 144 was made on a dry, grippy hybrid surface, encouraging the imagination that they weren’t quite out of the game, but Hampshire, the defending champions, climbed to victory with 31 balls to spare – their first-ever 10-wicket win in this competition. Hampshire are third, but Sussex are second, having lost their last two games heavily at the start of a six-game span in eight days.
His unbeaten 71 took 31 balls, the highlights a couple of immense slog sweeps, and he is now tied with Derbyshire’s Wayne Madsen in the Blast tally with 351 runs at an average of 175.50. “I didn’t think I was playing that well,” he said, berating himself further for nearly shorting McDermott by a handful of runs needed.
McDermott, who dominated the offense early on, forced his way with a towering six to the ground on George Garton, then hit the next ball over the ropes. The pair’s first fifty stand of the season came off the last ball of the power play, but they finished the match with Hampshire’s highest first wicket stand in T20.
In a record week, Vince now has 20,000 runs for Hampshire in all formats. Samit Patel and Madsen are the only other current players to have equal runs in county cricket. Typically his beauty of stroke was achieved in a remarkably undemonstrative manner, as if his immense talent animates those who watch him more than it delights him.
Bopara was caught in traffic jams on the M27 around 4pm, caused by a serious accident that closed the eastbound carriageway all evening. As Sussex captain, he may have been expected to get there earlier than most, but he was the only player or official not to arrive in time for the game, although there were many latecomers in the crowd. He passed the captain’s armband to Tom Alsop as he sat motionless in traffic.
Paul Farbrace, Sussex’s head coach, limited his comments to Sussex’s shortcomings on the pitch. “There’s a lot of inexperience and it shows,” he said. “It shows in our shot selection and reading the game. We got a glimpse of good cricket and then we had some incredibly slack cricket.
“We were trained tonight by the best T20 team in county cricket. They taught us a lesson in so many ways. Their professionalism, the way they set up their pitches, the way they threw the ball in, between the wickets run, hit limits.” and attacked our bowlers. Those sharp enough in our team will learn from what they saw tonight.’
Few careers in the province have been as fondly followed over the past two decades as Bopara’s. His laid-back nature has been part of his popularity, even if it has occasionally driven his coaches into distractions. Somehow he managed to make 171 appearances for England in all formats without ever really feeling like a permanent member of the squad, which was quite an achievement.
Much attention has been paid to his disorganized and forgetful nature. A memorable article about him in 2011, after promising to be more reliable, listed four goals and aspirations to cement that place in England, of which No. 3 was “remember passport” and No. 4 was “buy a louder alarm clock” .
But as England celebrates a new, attacking era, he also deserves more recognition as a progressive, as no England player has been so candid in the dressing room about how the game was changing. It was Bopara who spoke out with feeling after England’s terrifying 2015 World Cup campaign, saying they should “develop braver players and stop being afraid”. He was 29 and no longer played for England, but he was right. Bazbal? Maybe it should have been Raviball.
For the second game in a row, Farbrace despaired at Sussex’s self-destructive batting display. First Essex, now this. Three run-outs, a frozen 1-for-11 innings by Pakistan’s Shadab Khan (back in the squad after his on-field clash with Nathan McAndrew, who remains absent) and Garton’s determination to get out on the reverse sweep were all contenders when it came to raising Farbrace’s blood pressure.
Sussex was handily placed at 60 for 2 in 7.1 overs, driven forward by Tom Clark’s 36 from 25 balls. Then Clark sliced Liam Dawson through the hands of a back punt, Dan pushed Ibrahim for a second run he didn’t like and the batsman fell far short as Ross Whiteley sprinted off the cover boundary and swung to the bowler’s end.
When Scott Currie beat Clark in the next over, squared off as he turned to leg and moved into short third place, Sussex’s decline was set in motion: Currie gears up for a breakout season. Shadab, who had a poor season in Yorkshire last summer, never reacted and eventually swept Dawson straight into the air. Two balls later, Dawson slid one through the fence as Michael Burgess came downfield and grabbed and missed McDermott, but accidentally pushed the ball into the stumps to complete the dismissal. Dawson’s 2 for 14 revealed the left arm spinner at his best.
Sussex’s misfortune worsened. Garton was lucky to escape when his reverse sweep against Mason Crane was almost palmed between two fielders on a backward square. Amazingly, he repeated the shot on the next ball, was undone by the legspinner and James Fuller held the catch without the help of a teammate.
Two disastrous run-outs followed. James Coles fell trying to make an impossible run to a back run (Fynn Hudson-Prentice, the striker, looked at the ball, so he wasn’t much better) and Ari Karvelas was sent back for making an equally crazy second run to Vince’s misfield envisioned. Even Vince’s mistakes pay off in great form.
David Hopps writes about county cricket for ESPNcricinfo @davidkhopps