Royals Defeated Despite Maxwell Knock

Match report from Hampshire's second Champions League T20 Qualifying Group A match against the Sialkot Stallions

Hampshire Royals v Sialkot Stallions
Champions League T20 Qualifying Group A
thursday 11 October
Johannesburg, South Africa

Summary: Sialkot beat Hampshire by six wickets
Hampshire Royals: 143-8 [Maxwell 42]
Sialkot Stallions: 144-4 (19.1 ovs)
Scorecard
Qualifying Group 1 Final Table

Royals Team:
Carberry, Vince, Adams*, Ervine, Maxwell, Shahid Afridi, Dawson, Wood, Bates†, Balcombe, Griffiths
Stallions Team: 
Nazir, Ansar+, Sohail, Malik*, Yousuf, Khan, Naved-ul-Hasan, Bhatti, Ahmed, Hasan, Asif

A 50 partnership from Hampshire's two overseas stars threatened to wrestle control of this match but in the end it couldn't prevent the Royals from falling to a six wicket defeat at the hands of Pakistani T20 Champions the Sialkot Stallions in the final match of the Champions League T20 Qualifiers.

Shahid Afridi (14) played support to Glenn Maxwell's typically fluent knock of 42 (from 29 balls, including four fours and three sixes) but once they were both out in consecutive balls in the 16th over, their side had no sprint finish to the innings and their score of 143-8 was chased down with five balls to spare.

Afterwards, Jimmy Adams - captaining the side in the place of Dimi Mascarenhas, who had an injury - said; "It's not gone quite to plan. Ideally, we would have come out here a little earlier to get used to the conditions because I think the guys have found it a bit tough. The batters, especially, have found it hard to get the runs on the board that we would probably need.

"We've had [South African batsman] Neil McKenzie over in the summer and we spoke to him a lot about it, but it's [the ball] probably done a bit more than we thought. Saying that, the best teams adapt to those things and we probably haven't been quite up to it."

Hampshire's two losses mean they will now travel home from the competition, but they will take with them some valuable experience of playing in foreign conditions, against foreign teams. In the long-run that can only help them grow as players and as a team.

With both sides having lost their first match against Auckland, this fixture was to be played more for pride than points and Hampshire’s XI reflected that with two players with slight injuries being replaced by two others with plenty of obvious ability but not much Twenty20 experience, David Balcombe and David Griffiths.

But they would have to wait to make their mark after Hampshire lost the toss and were asked to bat first. Opener, James Vince [pictured, left] took the early initiative by smashing three boundaries in a row off new man Umaid Asif (the fast bowler Sialkot had brought into the side to suit conditions) to round off the second over nicely. And he followed that up by driving the match’s first ball of spin from Pakistan World Cup star, Raza Hasan to the ropes through point.

It was a shame, therefore, that he would soon become the first wicket to fall after a mix-up with Michael Carberry (11) saw him sent back to the non-strikers end and run out by a direct hit from Imran Nazir for 18. It was a sharp bit of fielding from the Pakistan national team captain which was soon to be made all the more conspicuous by his team-mates’ inability to replicate it. Hampshire gained boundaries through mistakes in the deep and were dropped on numerous occasions by their aggressors but what they had to do was make Sialkot live to regret such errors.

And that’s exactly what they set about trying to do as the big-hitting pair of Maxwell and Afridi came together at the crease just after the half-way stage in the innings with the Royals’ run-rate stumbling a little at 64-4. Maxwell duly hit two massive sixes in two balls, one of which ended up in the players’ pavilion, and they were up and running. In total, the dynamic duo lasted six overs, striking three sixes and five fours between them to get their partnership up to a half century.

But Hampshire’s failure to capitalise was made evident in their scoring at just over a run-a-ball in the crucial final five overs – the time when most teams would wish to be accelerating hard.

Nevertheless, needing a rate of 7.2 per over for victory, the Stallions’ reply hit some early speed-bumps as they lost Nazir (0) fourth ball and only had three runs on the board 13 deliveries later. Before the powerplay was up, Griffiths’ (1-26 off 4 overs) pace would be too much for Shakeel Ansar (15) as he played it on to his own stumps [right] and Chris Wood (1-26 off 3) would induce Shahid Yousuf (3) to cut straight to Maxwell at point; Sialkot 28-3 after just 6.5 overs – way behind Hampshire’s 48-2 at the same stage.

But it was then the fight back started. Haris Sohail was joined by captain, Shoaib Malik and the duo duly took 26 runs off the next two overs.

The Royals were stunned and needed another wicket to silence the oncoming run chase. However, the pair pushed on and, once they brought up their 100 up after 14.4 overs (Hampshire’s had come an over later), they looked the team in control. Now, with just 44 runs needed in just 32 balls, the Pakistani’s were able to do what they never felt comfortable doing against Auckland, collecting singles rather than dealing almost exclusively in dots and boundaries.

Sohail (63*) brought up his 50 with a four through backward point and yet more landmarks might were on the horizon, but the stand was cut four runs short of a century as a smart bit a stumping from Michael Bates off Afridi (1-26 off 4) saw Sialkot lose Malik for 39.

However, from the final ball of the penultimate over, his replacement Ali Khan (7*) brought up the single to level the scores. A leading edge over point confirmed the result and Hampshire were on their way home.

Words: Will Rimell / Simon Vincent
Images: Getty Images 

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