Hampshire 137-1 bt Sussex 133-8 by nine wickets
Try telling Hamza Riazuddin that Twenty20 is a batsman’s game.
Jimmy Adams, who hit a career-best 68 not out, Sean Ervine and Michael Lumb wasted no time in ensuring Hampshire got off to the best possible start in this season’s Twenty20 Cup by chasing down the 134 they needed to beat Sussex.
The left-handed trio needed only 16.1 overs to score the required runs and secure victory by nine wickets on the same excellent track that Hampshire defeated Middlesex on in the Friends Provident Trophy quarter-finals two days earlier.
But Riazuddin was deservedly named man of the match for setting up the win with an outstanding opening spell (3-0-11-3), in which he bowled dangermen Murray Goodwin (12) and Luke Wright in successive balls during his second over, before finishing with 3-15 as Sussex were restricted to 133-8 after winning the toss.
Riazuddin did not concede a boundary until his third over, which also included the wicket of Chris Nash, who hit one of the 19-year-old’s slower balls to mid-on.
If it was not for Sussex’s Twenty20 overseas player Dwayne Smith, who hit a 46-ball 63, Sussex would have struggled to set Hampshire a target of more than double figures.
Smith enjoys playing against Hampshire. He was a key man for the Deccan Chargers in this year’s Indian Premier League, but had only scored one Twenty20 half century before yesterday – an unbeaten 72 in Hampshire’s last-ball win at Hove last year.
After blocking Riazuddin’s hat-trick ball, Smith blitzed five fours and a pulled six against Sean Ervine. He put on 67 in nine overs with Ed Joyce before the Irish left-hander holed out to Liam Dawson at long-on in Imran Tahir’s final over, the 15th.
Then Dominic Cork (3-30) showed he is not too old for the shortest format by seeing off Rory Hamilton-Brown, who was caught by Adams at square leg, and Smith during his first over back.
He may be 37 but Cork showed lightning reflexes and athleticism by running out Smith with a skilful pick up and throw to Nic Pothas as he followed through.
Then he claimed two more wickets while conceding only six runs in the penultimate over, before Hampshire’s top three thrived against Sussex’s eight-man attack.
After Lumb was bowled round his legs by Smith for a rapid 21, Ervine and Adams shared an unbroken second-wicket stand of 110 from 81 balls.
Ervine used all his Twenty20 experience to help guide Hampshire to the target with an unbeaten 42 (35 balls.
Adams had never batted in Hampshire’s top six in the Twenty20 Cup before, but his opening partnership with Michael Lumb has been so effective in the Friends Provident Trophy that it made sense to continue it in the shortest format.
He responded with his third successive limited-overs fifty.
The highlight of Adams’s unbeaten 68 (49 balls) was a reverse-swept six against Will Beer’s leg spin. He also launched a huge maximum on to an inflatable behind the seats at mid-wicket against off-spinner Nash, his former Loughborough UCCE teammate.
After reaching his maiden Twenty20 fifty (he had only previously scored 48 runs in the competition) from just 29 balls, he pulled Sussex captain Michael Yardy for his seventh four and the winning runs with 3.5 overs to spare.
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