Disability Cricket Match Reports
D40 - 10 wicket win over main rivals Essex
Sunday 20th June
After driving through the rain, we arrived at Essex cricket ground to a very wet outfield but a covered wicket. Amazingly the weather changed and the outfield dried out pretty quickly. Hampshire had a very young D40 team playing against a main rival Essex. It was great to welcome back Ben Hyde and Tom Millward for their first games of the season.
Hampshire won the toss and elected to bowl.
Essex made a steady start against some tight Hampshire bowling with J.Freestone and R .Jackson starting to look dangerous. J.Dore had J.Freestone caught at short mid wicket by M.Mckenzie (sharp catch) to leave Essex 14 for 1. After an Essex rebuild taking the score to 44 M Mckenzie bowled Edwards for 14. Then a few overs later M.Mckenzie had R.Jackson ct at first slip by G Mckenzie for 20. Essex took the score to 66 for 3 and then lost 4 weeks for 10 runs. M Mckenzie getting another 3.
Essex then had mini revival with Aust and Doe adding 22 in 8 overs.A Macadam then bowled Aust for 11, and then J Dore took the final 2 wickets as Essex finished on 110 all out in 36 overs.
It was a very strong bowling display
M Bone 5 – 0 -0 18
J Dore 7.2 – 0 – 3-22
T Millward 4-0-0-15
G Mckenzie 6 -0-0 5
K Flaxman 3-0-0-13
A Macadam 3-0-1-11
Hampshire began with B Hyde /T.Millward hitting anything loose to the boundry and running quick singles. After 3 overs Hampshire were 36 – 0 and cruised to the finish with Ben Hyde ending up 65 not out and very well supported by T Millward 38 Not out.
Hampshire won by 10 wickets and got the score in 13.5 overs before a glorious 2 hour trip home!
Essex - 110ao
Hampshire - 113/0
Super9s - The final!
Sunday 9th August vs Essex
Hampshire met Essex at a windy and overcast Hollingbourne Cricket Club, to contest their first ever championship final. Losing the toss, Hampshire were inserted into bat. A damp surface threatened to be tricky for both sides.
Heading to open the innings was Morgan Judson & Henry Rixon, who both offered stubborn resistance with some solid shots to get Hampshire off to an assured start, providing a great platform to build upon. Morgan was eventually caught out off the bowling of Billy Gibbons for a patient 15 runs off 16 balls which brought Hayden Bond to the crease with the score 29-1 off of 6 overs.
Henry Rixon continued to frustrate the Essex bowling attack with some well orchestrated defence to enable Hayden to score some free flowing runs at the other end. Henry eventually been dismissed for 9 runs from 32 balls as he was LBW to the bowling of Oliver Kennedy.
Daniel Bradley-Turner & Hayden Bond both continued to play themselves in, now beginning to up the intensity of the scoring rate with some aggressive running, leading to some vitally important rotation of strike. Daniel hitting an impressive nine fours, including a superb cover drive in an entertaining 51 (not out) off 40 balls, having to retire because of competition rules at 50. Danny, in completing his maiden county half century became one of the youngest people to complete the feat of a half century in the history of disability cricket. With the score on 131/2 off of 22.2 overs his brother Josh Bradley-Turner came to the crease and started his innings in confident style but was dismissed to a cracking ball from Harry Willis for 5 runs off 8 balls.
Ben Tyler strolled confidently out to the crease, but was controversially out, stumped by the Essex wicketkeeper without scoring. Josh D’arcy (5 runs from 13 balls) and Hayden Bond, who was truly the glue to the Hampshire Innings (47 not out with 5 fours off 60 balls) saw their side home to a reasonable effort of 166/4 leaving coach Tony Adams full of praise for the improvements which were ably demonstrated by all those who batted. This being the first time Hampshire posted above 150 in any innings for quite some considerable time.
Captain Michael Powell had much to deliberate at the break with Vice-Captain Josh Bradley-Turner, both of them were extremely confident in the 166 runs being a defendable target. Historically however, they were aware that wides and no balls had been to the team’s determent in previous games. so it was imperative that the bowling attack got off to a strong start.
The threat of rain continued to persist as Hampshire set about defending their target of 166. Some accurate bowling from both Morgan Judson & Paul Melvin got Hampshire off to the perfect start with Paul picking up a quick wicket reducing Essex to 4-1 off of 1.5 overs. More accurate bowling meant that Hampshire were already beginning to constrain Essex in their pursuit of 167. Captain Powell electing to keep both Morgan & Paul bowling. Paul managing to pick up his second wicket of the game, getting Krish Bhudia caught by Henry Rixon for just 2 off 12 balls. Essex now 20/2 off 6 overs. Anthony Burgess kept behind the stumps impressively at the start of the game.
Captain Michael Powell eventually decided to put himself on to bowl as he opened up with an accurate, containing maiden over as the pressure continued to build upon the Essex batting attack. Morgan followed up with an equally accurate over, conceding just one leg bye to leave Essex 24/2 after 8 overs. Judson & Powell continued to restrict Essex before Morgan Judson was replaced by Josh Bradley-Turner in the twelve over, where Morgan took over the keeping duties from Anthony, Morgan having completed his allotted amount of 6 overs, conceding just six runs.
Hampshire continued to field aggressively with some impressive and consistent fielding from Connor Bates who was stopping balls left, right and centre. Hampshire chased balls in pairs to limit the Essex attack as Josh Bradley-Turner started strongly. Danny Bradley-Turner then emerged to support his brother at the other end by taking 2 wickets in 2 balls, including the crucial wicket of Essex’ big hitter Stephen Denham who was caught by Daniel Watkins to restrict Essex to 56/4 by the end of the 16th over. Hampshire completing their opening 16 overs in under an hour to prevent Essex from getting any rhythm in the middle.
Powell quickly removed Danny-Bradley Turner from the attack, as competition rules state bowlers aren’t allowed to bowl again after taking three wickets. Powell turned to Paul Melvin who was impressively hit by the Essex batsman for three fours before Josh BT followed up with a superb maiden over. In Josh’s next over he then bowled a consistent line before securing a regulation caught and bowled to leave Essex 76/5 at the end of the 20th over and now almost requiring ten runs an over to win.
Hampshire then made the pressure of the run rate and some aggressive fielding count with an impressive run out by Hayden Bond seeing Alexander Seaton go back to the pavilion for 0 runs without even facing a ball as Hampshire began to close in on a well deserved victory.
Ben Tyler then struck in the 23rd over, his first ball to James Whale clattering into the stumps was sadly a no-ball due to a double bounce, but Ben impressively followed up next ball to clean bowl Whale with a legitimate delivery. Dan BT then continued to restrict the run rate conceding 3 runs before Scott Howe bowled a consistent line to ensure Essex required 63 off the last 5 overs with only one wicket in hand.
Powell elected in the 27th over to bring himself back into the attack, and rather fittingly, after sixteen seasons of hurt for himself, secured Hampshire’s first ever championship by trapping James Coles LBW for 44 runs off 55 balls, leading Hampshire into scenes of jubilation. Upon collecting the trophy Powell remarked – “We’ve been waiting a long time for this” before hoisting the trophy into the air!
Super 9’s coach Tony Adams had the following to say regarding the 2021 campaign. “I love it when a plan comes together, I am so proud of the boys, the squad have bonded and gelled brilliantly this year, and every single player in our entire squad has played a part in our success. This is an extremely progressive squad who’ve all continued to improve and take on board things which we’ve needed to learn from as a unit. Everything came together at the perfect time and we are delighted to have secured the county championship after such a difficult time in previous seasons’ – this squad will continue to grow and develop, and we look forward to what we hope will be an equally successful campaign in 2022”
A special mention to Haydn Furneaux, who came to support the team, even though he was unable to play due to niggling injuries – thank you Haydn, your support meant a great deal to the whole team.
As always, it wouldn’t be possible without the loyal support and dedication which is shown by our parents, carers, partners and volunteers of the players – thank you so much!
Hampshire finally have done it, they’ve won the big one – They can now call themselves champions!
Michael Powell (Hampshire Super9’s Captain)
