Match Preview: Worcestershire v Hampshire - NatWest T20 Blast

Hampshire will reach a sixth consecutive NatWest T20 Blast Finals-Day if they beat Worcestershire in the competition’s quarter-final fixture at New Road on Friday.

James Vince’s side were victorious in their final two games of the South Group to claim third place and ensure qualification for their seventh T20 quarter-final in a row. The Hampshire skipper will be hopeful that they can put in another impressive performance, knowing that a win will take them just two more away from being crowned this year’s competition winner.

Hampshire Squad:

Hampshire name a 15-man squad for the knock-out stage fixture, with three changes to the squad that faced Somerset in the last T20 Blast match. All-rounder Sean Ervine returns after missing the last two months with a finger injury, whilst Fidel Edwards features once again following the conclusion of his Caribbean Premier League commitments. 

Liam Dawson is also included in the 15-man squad after his return from a loan spell at Essex.

The Opposition:

Worcestershire have enjoyed a strong T20 Blast campaign so far this season and finished in second place in the North Group, just behind last year’s winners Birmingham Bears. They reach the quarter-final stage in the competition for the fifth time as they bid to make their first-ever finals-day appearance.

Captain Daryl Mitchell has contributed excellently to side’s success so far this season, however he faces a late decision on his match-fitness after suffering a hamstring injury last week.

England all-rounder Moeen Ali is available for the hosts after being temporarily released from his international commitments with England to play in the quarter-final fixture.

Did You Know?

• This will be the first time Hampshire have faced Worcestershire in the 20-over format.
• Three of Hampshire’s last five quarter-final victories have been away fixtures.
• James Vince has the fourth highest run-total in this year’s competition so far having scored 534 runs at an excellent average of 48.54.

What The Team Say:

Hampshire captain James Vince: ‘To make the quarter-finals was quite tough in the end – needing to win our last two games was difficult and we had some hard work to do but to be able to do that is credit to the guys and hopefully we can carry on that form and momentum heading into Friday.

‘Worcestershire are not a team that we’ve played an awful lot against across all formats but they’re an organised side and we still know the players reasonably well. They play similar cricket to us in that they have bowlers that like to take the pace off and they also have a couple of experienced batsman in there too but we’ll do our homework and make sure we’re ready.

'Getting to finals day is the first aim and we know that there are no certainties for Friday – last year was disappointing to go out when we did so hopefully if we get there this year we can go a couple of steps further than before and I believe if we play as well as we can we give ourselves the best possible chance to do that.'

Hampshire Squad:

Michael Carberry, James Vince (c), Adam Wheater, Owais Shah, Liam Dawson, Joe Gatting, Jimmy Adams, Sean Ervine, Will Smith, Gareth Berg, Chris Wood, Yasir Arafat, Danny Briggs, Mason Crane, Fidel Edwards.

Coverage:

Live text commentary will be available via the Hampshire Cricket Twitter and Facebook pages. A feed to these will also be available on this page.

There will be ball-by-ball commentary available on BBC Radio Solent online at bbc.co.uk.

The game is also live on Sky Sports Ashes HD. Coverage starts at 5:15pm.

Weather Forecast:

Please click here to view the latest weather forecast for New Road.

Additional Information:

In the event of poor weather preventing any play on Friday, a reserve day of Saturday (time TBC) has been scheduled.

Tickets:

Please note that General Admission tickets are fully sold out for this away fixture.