Hawks continue poor Twenty20 form

The Hampshire Hawks lost their sixth successive Twenty20 away match last night.

A five-run defeat against the Middlesex Crusaders at soggy Southgate leaves the Hawks needing to win their next three matches, all at the Rose Bowl, against Sussex, Middlesex and Essex to have any hope of reaching the quarter-finals for the second time.

Encouragingly, the Hawks' home form in the Twenty20 Cup is far better than their away record (they have not won away from the Rose Bowl in the shortest form of the game for nearly two years but have suffered just one loss in their last six home games).

But there will have to be marked improvement from their batsmen if they are to win their first Twenty20 match in five against the Sussex Sharks tomorrow.

Without Shane Warne, Stuart Clark, Shaun Udal and now Dimtri Mascarenhas, Hampshire are lacking the vital ingredient of experience.

While Adam Voges is taking a while to adjust it should be remembered that he has been in England for less than a week and the slow wicket and damp surroundings at Southgate are totally different to what he is used to in Perth.

But nine runs from three innings is still a poor return from Hampshire's latest overseas player, and it appears that the poor batting shown in the longer form of the game by the rest of the top order has infiltrated into the Twenty20 Cup.

Chasing 74 to win in a rain-affected game reduced to 12 overs-a-side should have been a relatively straightforward task, even on a slow wicket.

Nic Pothas, the Hawks' captain following Mascarenhas's England call-up, learned from the previous day's mistake at Surrey by fielding first on winning the toss. But the Hawks struggled against the spinners again.

Hampshire did well to limit Middlesex to 73-7 and book-ended their innings with big sixes over long on and square leg from Michael Lumb and James Bruce.

Lumb also hit three fours but a wet outfield ensured there was only one other boundary, a glanced four from Sean Ervine, in the Hawks' reply.

Michael Carberry top-edged an attemped pull and was caught at short fine leg by Middlesex captain Ed Smith, his former Kent teammate, on the run from first slip before Voges holed out to deep backward square leg after a watchful six.

When Lumb (22 from 19 balls) was trapped lbw by a quicker, straight delivery from Murali Kartik, the Indian slow left armer, the Hawks struggled against spin as they had done against Nayan Doshi and Chris Schofield the previous day.

Kartik (3-16) received good support from Jamie Dalrymple (1-10), who was surprisingly left out of England's one-day squad last week, as Middlesex took control.

A leading edge from Chris Benham and Ervine's failure to clear the square-leg boundary gave Kartik the wickets that put the Crusaders on top.

The Hawks needed an unlikely 20 to win from the last two overs with five wickets in hand, and an excellent penultimate over from Dalrymple, which cost only five and included the wicket of Greg Lamb, ensured the Crusaders a comfortable win.

Lamb planted his fellow off spinner to deep square leg with seven balls remaining, leaving a target of 15 from the last over.

It was far to much to ask in the conditons and in a match in which the most expensive over went for just ten runs.

Jimmy Adams, recalled following Mascarenhas's call-up, holed out to the second ball and Pothas lost his middle stump with two deliveries remaining before Bruce cracked Chad Keegan for eight consolation runs.

It was a big disappointment as Chris Tremlett (3-12) had bowled outstandingly.

It looked as though it might be the Hawks' day when the big man beat the defence of Tyron Henderson, who had blasted 63 from 44 balls against them for Kent at Beckenham last year.

Tremlett also uprooted Ben Hutton's middle stump with a yorker when he returned to bowl a miserly last over, and a good fielding display was epitomised by Ervine and Benham's teamwork following Voges' first delivery.

Ervine was losing his balance on the square- leg boundary when he caught Keegan, so threw the ball to Benham to make sure of the catch.

Bringing Voges off after a good over of slow slow left arm from the Australian that also included the wicket of Compton may have been a mistake.

But Middlesex captain Smith's 14-ball 21, which included sixes over long on and mid-wicket against Bruce and Taylor, proved to be the match-winning innings.

Hampshire were hammered by nine wickets by Middlesex at Southgate in their last match of last season's Twenty20, and unless there is a swift about-turn in form there are likely to be more dead rubbers this season.

MIDDLESEX

MORGAN c Pothas b Tremlett 9 (7 balls)

SMITH c Bruce b Taylor 21 (14)

HENDERSON b Tremlett 1 (6)

DALRYMPLE c Ervine b Lamb 5 (13)

KEEGAN c Ervine b Voges 8 (11)

COMPTON c Tremlett b Voges 8 (6)

JOYCE 9* (8)

HUTTON b Tremlett 3 (4)

SCOTT 2* (2)

MURTAGH (dnb)

KARTIK (dnb)

EXTRAS 7(lb 2,w 5)

TOTAL: 73-7 (12 overs)

Fall of wickets: 1-11 (Morgan, 2nd over), 2-19 (Henderson, 4th), 3-36 (Smith, 6th ), 4-49 (Dalrymple 8th), 5-57 (Keegan, 10th), 6-61 (Compton 10th), 7-70 (Hutton 12th)

Hampshire bowling: Bruce 3-0-17-0, Tremlett 3-0-12-3, Taylor 2-0-20-1, Ervine 2-0-12-0, Lamb 1-0-6-1, Voges 1-0-4-2

HAMPSHIRE

CARBERRY c Smith b Keegan 1 (4 balls)

LUMB lbw b Kartik 22 (19)

VOGES c Compton b Henderson 6 (11)

BENHAM c & b Kartik 3 (6)

ERVINE c Compton b Kartik 16 (15)

LAMB c Compton b Dalrymple 7 (7)

POTHAS b Keegan 2 (6)

ADAMS c Henderson b Keegan 0 (2)

TREMLETT 0*(0)

BRUCE 8*(2)

TAYLOR (dnb)

EXTRAS 3(w 3)

TOTAL 68-8 (12 overs)

Fall of wickets: 1-7 (Carberry, 2nd over), 2-21 (Voges, 5th), 3-30 (Lumb, 6th), 4-43 (Benham 8th), 5-54 (Ervine 10th), 6-59 (Lamb 11th), 7-60 (Adams, 12th), 8-60 (Pothas, 12th)

Middlesex bowling: Murtagh 2-0-16-0, Keegan 3-0-14-3, Henderson 2-0-12-1, Kartik 3-0-16-3, Dalrymple 2-0-10-1