White Lauds Competition for Places Ahead of Outlaws Clash

Dimi Mascarenhas' return has added healthy competition for places

Full squad and preview for Thursday's Clydesdale Bank 40 match between the Hampshire Royals and the Nottinghamshire Outlaws at The Ageas Bowl

Hampshire Royals v Nottinghamshire Outlaws
Clydesdale Bank 40
Thursday 31 May (16:40 start)
The Ageas Bowl

The Hampshire Royals look to extend their unbeaten run in the Clydesdale Bank 40 competition with a match against the Nottinghamshire Outlaws on Thursday at The Ageas Bowl.

They’re well placed to do so with two of the competition’s leading run-scorers in their ranks and plenty of competition for places.

Michael Carberry’s unbeaten century against Somerset on Sunday saw him move to 239 runs in three competition matches so far and climb to the top of the batting charts in the process. He only to lost his place there on Monday night as the Netherlands’ Stephan Myburgh – brother of former Hampshire player Jo – broke the 250 barrier. In addition, James Vince, who, along with Jimmy Adams, provided excellent support for Carberry in the nine-wicket win in Taunton, is just outside the top ten with 148 runs.

But it is perhaps in the bowling department that Hampshire most obviously enjoy an embarrassment of riches. The Royals’ leading wicket-taker, Kabir Ali (who has five scalps in two matches) was able to be rested against Somerset while returning club T20 Captain Dimitri Mascarenhas took two early wickets for just 17 runs to get his team off to a flyer. David Griffiths, also, took two wickets at the death to reinforce his spot. In fact, no single bowler (including part-timer Carberry) has gone wicketless so far in the competition.

They come up against an Outlaws side that are hard to read at this point. They currently sit just one place off the bottom of Group B having played just a single competition match – a match they lost to perennial underdogs, the Scottish Saltires on the Duckworth-Lewis method.

However, they were Runners-Up in their group last season, and Adams’ side will be more than aware of the threat posed by former Royal Michael Lumb at the top of the Notts order. Lumb scored nearly 2,000 runs for Hampshire in just over 50 List A matches for the club (an average of just under 40). The England T20 World Cup winner is also the second highest run-getter in LV= County Championship Division One, having already broken through the 500-run mark.

Hampshire manager, Giles White said; “Michael’s done well recently and he’s a dangerous player, we’re well aware of that, so hopefully he doesn’t score too many against us on Thursday. But it’s not just Michael Lumb, they’ve got a number of good players so we’ll have to be ready for all of them.

“We’ve got a very healthy competition for places and we’ll sit down and select the side tomorrow. Someone’ll miss out but it’s good to have strength in depth – sides need that – and, with everyone fit, we have that.”

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Full Squad:

(3) Simon Katich	(16) Michael Bates +
(4) Jimmy Adams*	(17) Dimitri Mascarenhas
(7) Sean Ervine	(18) David Griffiths
(8) Liam Dawson	(19) Danny Briggs
(14) James Vince	(25) Chris Wood
(15) Michael Carberry	(33) Kabir Ali