Royals Remain Unbeaten After Cruising to Victory Over Surrey

Jul 19 2013

Surrey v Hampshire Royals
Friends Life T20 (South Group)
Friday 19th July
The kia Oval

Summary: Hampshire Royals beat Surrey by seven wickets
Surrey: 126-6
Hampshire Royals: 127-3
Scorecard
Concurrent Table

Royals:
Carberry, Vince, Adams, Ervine, Dawson, Wheater, Bates+, Mascarenhas*, Sohail, Wood, Briggs.
Surrey:
Roy, Davies+, Ponting, O'Brien, Wilson, Mahmood, Ansari, De Bruyn, Batty*, Lewis, Dernbach.

Hampshire Royals remain the only unbeaten side in the Friends Life T20 competition after an impressive seven-wicket victory over Surrey at the Oval.

An excellent all-round bowling & fielding performance from the Royals helped restrict the home side to 126-6 off their 20 overs.

Michael Carberry (25) and Jimmy Adams (30) gave Hampshire a solid platform at the top of the innings before Sean Ervine (28) and Liam Dawson (24) saw the visitors home with ten balls remaining to move back top of the South Group.

Hampshire wouldn’t have been too disappointed to have been put into the field by Surrey captain Gareth Batty with the Royals winning each of their last three matches batting second. And it was the visitors who made the better start with Dimitri Mascarenhas (2-33) and Chris Wood (2-21) both picking up two early wickets to leave Surrey 44-4.

And with key players Ricky Ponting (3) and Azhar Mahmood (0) amongst those dismissed, the Royals immediately had a strong foothold into the contest.

Looking at the Hampshire team in the field, you wouldn’t have guessed that they were on the back end of a four-day match in Canterbury. Their energy and enthusiasm throughout left Surrey struggling to create any real momentum.  

Michael Bates’ diving catch behind the stumps and a sharp low take from James Vince at cover to dismiss Ponting were particular highlights as the Royals restricted Surrey to 126-6 off their 20 overs.

Needing 6.5 runs an over for victory, the Royals made a steady start with Carberry and Vince (14) showing glimpses of the form that saw them both help Hampshire cruise to victory over Middlesex in their FLT20 last match. However when they both fell to leave Hampshire 47-2, Surrey suddenly had a sniff of salvaging an unlikely result.

But a gritty partnership of 45 between Adams and Ervine during a tough period kept the visitors in front of the required run-rate, needing 40 runs from nine overs. Despite Adams falling to a smart run-out from Zafar Ansari, Dawson joined Ervine to see it home as Hampshire won with 10 balls remaining on 127-3.   

Words: Jamie Hopkins
Images: LMI Photography

Recent Form:
Holders Hampshire are half-way through their matches so far in the competition, having won four with one game abandoned. Their seven-wicket victory over the Middlesex Panthers in their last outing was arguably their most impressive performance to date, with the in-form James Vince hitting 84.  

Surrey’s eight-wicket defeat to Essex this week ended their winning streak in the competition which extended to four matches. The one positive from the match was that former Australia captain Ricky Ponting top-scored with 65.