Hampshire Hawks strengthened their bid for Vitality Blast quarter-final qualification by beating Surrey by nine wickets in a one-sided affair at The Kia Oval
A brilliant collective bowling performance by Hampshire, led by the impressive John Turner’s 3 for 17, resulted in Surrey being bowled out for just 124 in 19.2 overs.
Ben McDermott, with a hard-hitting 50 off 38 balls, and James Vince, who finished with a superb 62 not out off 40 balls, put on an opening partnership of 92 from 11 overs.
The in-form Vince, who has now scored 476 runs in ten innings in this season’s Blast at an average of 79.33, saw the Hawks home in the company of Toby Albert and it was a first T20 win for Hampshire against Surrey in nine attempts, going back to July 2015. Vince hit two sixes and seven fours, his last a pull off Sean Abbott to end the game.
McDermott ramped his fellow Australian international, paceman Abbott, for four and six from successive balls in the second over of Hampshire’s reply and he later top-edged a hook at Tom Lawes for another maximum before falling to Gus Atkinson. His 92-run stand with Vince equalled Hampshire’s T20 best for the first wicket against Surrey, by Michael Lumb and Jimmy Adams at the Ageas Bowl in 2009.
Jamie Overton, with three sixes and five fours in a powerful 45 from 24 balls, was the only Surrey batsman to make a score of note as Turner, Chris Wood (3 for 20) and Nathan Ellis (3 for 21) exerted an almost total stranglehold.
Surrey, joint top of the South Group alongside Somerset at the start of the game, with seven wins from their first nine matches, lost their first five wickets for just 32 after being put into bat and, at the halfway point of the innings, were in deep trouble at 39 for five.
Only an extraordinary 56-run stand in a mere 3.1 overs between Overton and Tom Curran – particularly extraordinary in the context of the rest of the innings – hauled Surrey’s total up to something defendable. Their partnership was a seventh wicket T20 record for Surrey against Hampshire, beating the 52 put on by Zafar Ansari and Gareth Batty at the Ageas Bowl in 2012.
When Surrey captain Jordan mishit Ellis to deep mid off to go for 17 it left the total 53 for six from 12.4 overs, Surrey were in trouble.
But Overton pulled Benny Howell’s medium pace for a huge six into the second tier of the JM Finn Stand to begin a much-needed revival in the 14th over. Howell’s delivery had also been a no ball, giving Overton the chance to muscle the next ball, a free hit, over wide mid wicket for another six as the over ultimately cost 20 runs.
Nineteen more were plundered from the 15th over, with Overton taking three fours and a pulled six off James Fuller, while Curran then joined in the fun by pulling Wood for six and then creaming the left-arm seamer through extra cover for four before being caught at long on for an 11-ball 22 later that over.
Turner returned to bowl Sunil Narine for 2, off his back pad, and Overton’s fine knock was ended in the 19thover when Ellis fired a full ball through another attempted big hit.
Last pair Atkinson and Lawes came together with nine balls of the innings to be bowled but they could not manage to see out the 20 overs, with Wood bowling Atkinson for five behind his legs.
Surrey openers Will Jacks and Laurie Evans departed in the opening two overs, with Wood and Turner doing the damage.
Sam Curran clubbed Ellis to mid off in the fifth over, and Jamie Smith had only made two more runs than Curran when he fell for nine in the next over, mis-hitting the pacy Turner to mid on.
The powerplay ended with Surrey a sickly 22 for four and Abbott was then sent back for 6 when he touched a Fuller lifter to the keeper.
