Hampshire & Sussex Set to Reunite Where It All Started

This Friday (17 June) at the The Ageas Bowl, in a new age of T20 cricket, Hampshire and Sussex Sharks will reunite for a repeat of where it all started.

It was this week 13 years ago that saw the first Twenty20 matches played in the country with John Crawley’s Hampshire hosting Chris Adams’ Sussex on Friday 13^th June, 2003.

Spinner Shaun Udal, who went on to play 25 T20 matches for Hampshire averaging 22 with the ball, was playing in the match and he recalls the difficult of the unknown for the players: “We lost the toss and it was tough for the batsmen because we had no idea what a good score would be, considering it was the first T20 match we had ever played! Our plan was to take each ball as it comes and just see what score we get to.”

As it turns out, Hampshire’s total of 153 all-out after 19.4 overs, led by 35 from 26 balls from Derek Kenway and 34 from 27 balls from James Hamblin, was enough to guide Hampshire to the win by five runs, with Sussex requiring ten runs from a tense final over.

Despite receiving mixed reviews before the competition had even started, Udal believes the players knew it was the start of something special: “When it first got talked about it was regarded by some as a bit of a hit and a giggle, but I think the boys really embraced it. It was all very different to what we were used to but it was a lot of fun and you could tell it appealed to totally different audiences.”

R'n'B band Mis-Teeq, supported by D'Side and United Colours of Sound entertained a crowd of almost 10,000 at the The Ageas Bowl in-front of the Sky Sports cameras and Udal feels it was the spectacle that was the most impressive part of the day: “It turned cricket into an event. It was actually a fantastic game on the pitch, but I think a lot of people will remember more about the music afterwards! What struck me most was that it really appealed to the younger audience and the crowd really got behind the match from the start.”

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