Wood's Career-Best Figures Help Hampshire Secure Impressive Win

Summary: Hampshire beat Glamorgan by 21 runs

A battling knock from Sean Ervine (49) and career-best T20 figures from Chris Wood (4-16) saw James Vince’s side bounce-back to grab their second win of the 2015 NatWest T20 Blast against Glamorgan at the SWALEC Stadium.

Despite losing early wickets, Ervine led the fightback as his vital knock helped the visitors to 148-4 from their allotted overs.

An emphatic start and performance from Wood then helped Hampshire dominate proceedings as Glamorgan struggled to get going and eventually fell well short to fall to a 21-run defeat.

After losing the toss and being put into bat first, Hampshire suffered an early setback with the loss of skipper Vince (4) inside the opening over.

Further wickets fell shortly after in quick succession but a brilliant fightback from Ervine helped thwart some tidy bowling, and with some good support from Adam Wheater (19), the pair built an important partnership.

Further support came from Will Smith (30) who took over after the loss of Ervine just short of his half-century, and some good manoeuvring of the ball from the right-hander led Hampshire to a competitive total from their 20 overs.

With momentum heading into the second innings, Hampshire began in excellent fashion as Smith again continued his habit of taking early wickets by striking in the opening over to dismiss Wright (0).

Wood also made an immediate impact - the seamer grabbing two vital wickets, including that of South-African international batsman Colin Ingram (7), to leave the hosts in disarray at 13-3.

Glamorgan recovered slightly but despite surviving the following eight overs without further loss, some efficient and accurate bowling meant runs remained hard to come by.

Captain Jacques Rudolph (38) did his upmost to guide his team towards the required target, before the skipper was removed by Ervine (1-8) who also contributed well with the ball.

A short rain-break helped Hampshire refuel and with 65 runs still required and just six overs remaining, Danny Briggs (1-22) and Yasir Arafat (1-27), who made his 200^th T20 appearance, struck upon the resumption of play to add to the home-sides woes.

Wood then finished the job to pick up his third and fourth wickets, the paceman along with the rest of the Hampshire bowlers superbly restricting Glamorgan, to help Hampshire pick up a vital victory to move up to 4^th in the South Group. 

Words: Will Brewster