Royals Edged Out Despite Mascarenhas Heroics
Aug 20 2013
Mascarenhas' only other List A five-fer was against Gloucestershire in 2002!
Lancashire Lightning v Hampshire Royals
Yorkshire Bank 40
Tuesday 20 August 2013 (15:40 start)
Emirates Old Trafford
Summary: Lancashire beat Hampshire by five runs
Lancashire Lightning: 261-9
Hampshire Royals: 256-8
Scorecard
Concurrent Table
Hampshire Team
Terry, Roberts, Adams*, McKenzie, Ervine, Dawson, Wheater†, Mascarenhas, Wood, Griffiths, Taylor
Lancashire Team
Moore, Smith, Prince, Katich, Brown, Croft, Cross†, Hogg, Kabir Ali, Chapple*, Lilley
Dimitri Mascarenhas (5-42 from eight overs) retires from county cricket at the end of this season but he showed that, on his day, he can still be as destructive as he ever was with only a second career List A five-wicket haul in this Yorkshire Bank 40 match against the Lancashire Lightning at Emirates Old Trafford.
Alas, it wasn't quite enough as the Royals, needing a six off the final ball of the chase to force a tie and guarantee a home Semi-Final, fell five runs short; they can put that right in their final group match against Derbyshire in Derby on Bank Holiday Monday.
Despite the result the Royals' fate is still in their own hands as they continue to top the table by one point going into the final round of matches.
The game was also notable for a good performance from young Brad Taylor (2-50 from eight overs), playing his debut competitive match for the county in the absence of Danny Briggs on England Lions duty. Taylor was looking to quite literally “steal the show” from home batsman Stephen Moore when he came into the attack in the 14th over. The Lightning opener had just made his 50 with a first six of the match (39 balls, seven fours) and his team were looking comfortable on 83-2. But the 16 year old couldn’t have wished for a better start with two dots being followed by a smart catch behind to see off the half-centurion. Only three of his overs later, the off-spinner had his second victim... none other than former Royal and Australian Test batsman Simon Katich (22), caught at mid-on by Liam Dawson.
That left the hosts 127-4 at the half-way stage in the innings and looking for a partnership to re-establish the upper-hand they had previously enjoyed. That’s exactly what they got through Karl Brown (66) and Steven Croft (65) who, together, put on 95 at a run-a-ball for the fifth wicket.
However, looking to up the ante in the closing stages, they elected to call a powerplay which brought Mascarenhas back into the attack and, already drunk on the blood of the two batters Taylor hadn’t seen off, the T20 skipper promptly dismissed Brown and his replacement, Gareth Cross (0) in three balls. The five-fer was completed when, in the final over of the powerplay, Arron Lilley (10) gave himself too much space and was bowled top-of-off to leave his side 239-7 in the 38th.
In the two overs that remained, Mascarenhas would also chip in with the run-out of Kabir Ali (6) before David Griffiths (1-51 off 6) would see off Croft, caught well in the deep by Sean Terry. The hosts finished on 261-9 from their 40 overs, setting Hampshire a run-rate of 6.5 for victory.
The start of the reply would be all-important for the Royals; could youngsters Terry (33) and Michael Roberts (25) cope with being promoted to the top of the order in place of the absent Michael Carberry and James Vince (also away with the Lions)? The answer was yes as the two put on 50 runs inside 11 overs, the latter leaving with his team only just six runs behind on the over comparison.
But wickets slowed the run-rate and when captain Jimmy Adams left for a patient run-a-ball 41 in the 25th over his side needed an injection of pace at 128-3. Fortunately, that’s what you get with Sean Ervine (43) and, together with Neil McKenzie, the pair were able to call the batting powerplay to coincide with a harder replacement ball, their side needing 100 off the final 10 overs.
What followed would see the odds swing violently from being in one team's favour to the other's as boundaries were interspersed with wickets. First, Lilley took two wickets in two balls, then Adam Wheater (21) struck successive boundaries, then Ali dismissed Ervine, then Mascarenhas struck a six and a four to take the Royals to needing 12 off 6 balls. The drama didn't end there as two wickets fell in the final over but new man, Chris Wood drove the ball to the ropes.
In the end, an unplayable yorker from Ali ensured the Royals' hero of 2012 became their villain of 2013. On that day at Lord's the former England man stopped the seven runs which would have lost the game for the Royals; here, he stopped the six off the final ball that would have won it for them.
Words: Simon Vincent
Images: LMI Photography
Background
The Royals went into the fixture with a three-point cushion over the Lightning and two games left to go. Of the remaining teams in the group, only Essex could catch Hampshire’s total at the time of 16 points. Therefore, a tie or a no result (both one point) would see Jimmy Adams’ side definitely top the table and secure a spot in the final four.
A win (two points) would see the county go into their final group game with 18 points in total, meaning they would definitely be one of the two best-qualifying winners of the three groups, therefore securing home advantage in the knock-out stages.
For the Lightning, only a win would give them a chance of topping Group B and, even then, their fate would still be in the Royals’ hands. Anything less would make Semi-Final qualification extremely unlikely given that only one best-qualifying runner-up from the three groups makes the knock-out rounds in this competition and teams in the other two groups had already reached Lancashire’s would-be maximum of 15 points.
Michael Carberry had been the Lightning’s doppelganger in 2013 having scored a breath-taking unbeaten 150 in the reverse fixture as well as a not-out century in the two sides’ Friends Life t20 Quarter-Final, also at The Ageas Bowl. Both matches went the way of the Royals but, without four key performers (including Carberry) and, coming off the back of Friends Life t20 Finals Day heartbreak, Hampshire would really have to prove their mettle to make it a treble.
Carberry, James Vince and Danny Briggs all missed out on the trip as they have been called up for the England Lions’ squad to take on Bangladesh A at Bristol, also on Tuesday. In addition, Sohail Tanvir had also played his last match for the county having been called away on International commitments for Pakistan. That meant Hampshire were without both openers and their only front line spinner as well as their leading competition wicket-taker.
Into the squad in their place came David Griffiths, Hamza Riazuddin, Michael Roberts, Sean Terry and 16-year old off-spinner Brad Taylor.
Roberts, Griffiths and Riazuddin had all already played in the competition this season; Terry and Taylor hadn't. Were Taylor to play it would be his competitive debut in any format for the county. His only senior appearance already was in a friendly against Bangladesh A earlier that month where he took 2-23 off seven overs and put on a last wicket partnership of 54 with Liam Dawson.