REPORT: Crane Topples Northants In Quarantine Cup Curtain-Raiser

Hampshire's Mason Crane emerged victorious in his opening Quarantine Cup bout on Monday, defeating Northamptonshire's Ricardo Vasconcelos by two wickets to begin his campaign in good style.

There will be an inquiry among the Northamptonshire members after Ricardo Vasconcelos began the Quarantine Cup by leaving out all of the county’s overseas stars for their opening defeat by Hampshire.

Instead, Northamptonshire failed to use up their allocated five overs, with Hampshire - led by Crane - routing them for just 34.

Crane’s batsmen reached the target with an over to spare in what was an emphatic victory.

Hampshire looked to squeeze their opponents from ball one as Fidel Edwards, remarkably passing the 97mph barrier with routine ease, threw down a tight first over in which just six runs were scored.

Richard Levi then tried to slice over cover but found himself caught just outside the ring, bringing Josh Cobb to the crease.

Cobb, who had curiously lost the captaincy to Alex Wakely for this encounter, struggled to get the ball off the square, but Vasconcelos pushed Shaheen Shah Afridi down the ground for a sumptuous boundary, and Cobb found the fence at point, although the run rate was still only modest.

Northamptonshire appeared to know that, but struggled to up the ante. Instead, a meagre shot from Cobb resulted in a simple catch at cover, giving Afridi his first wicket in English county cricket.

Wakely smashed an extraordinary 174-yard straight six (that’s 159 metres in modern money… quite how it stayed inside the The Ageas Bowl, nobody knows), but Crane made sure the opposition skipper would not do any more damage by luring him into a miscue to point.

Crane was on a hat-trick when Rob Keogh chipped his first delivery to wide mid-on and though he could not complete the feat, Kyle Abbott cleaned up the Northamptonshire innings with the second delivery of the final over - ripping Vasconcelos’s leg stump clean out of its groove with a savage inswinging yorker.

Hampshire were sluggish in the early part of their chase. with James Vince departing early and Nye Donald edging off Ben Sanderson to see the Welshman on his way for a three-ball duck.

Northamptonshire had limited their opponents to just 7 for 2 from two overs, and the prospects of defending their modest score were improving by the minute. Then, in one Graeme White over, everything changed.

Rilee Rossouw decided he would take on the Milton Keynes spinner, sending a crashing six over long off, steering a gorgeous drive through mid-on for four and dispatching White over midwicket for half-a-dozen more.

White struck with the final ball of the over, Rossouw caught at mid-off attempting one big shot too many, but the South African’s 17 from 5 deliveries had taken Hampshire to within touching distance of victory and when Lewis McManus pulled Luke Procter for six it was game over.

Mason Crane returns to Quarantine Cup action on Friday (17th April) as he faces Essex's Jamie Porter in the second round of action from Group Two.

The draw for the group stage of the inaugural Quarantine Cup was made with competing teams split into two groups, with the top two from each progressing to the semi-finals.

Group One contains Hampshire, Essex, Gloucestershire, Nottinghamshire, Warwickshire and Northamptonshire. Meanwhile, Sussex, Glamorgan, Surrey, Leicestershire and Kent make up Group Two.

The round-robin format sees teams play each other once in matches lasting five-overs-a-side.

Sussex paceman Tymal Mills, Essex seamer Jamie Porter and Nottinghamshire wicket-keeper Tom Moores are among the names of other participants, whilst the commentators include Test Match Special's Henry Moeran, Alison Mitchell and  Dan Norcross.