Dave Allen: 20 Years Of el clasicoast At The Ageas Bowl

Since the competition began in 2003, we have met Sussex every year, usually twice; indeed the only year we have not had a fixture against them at home was in 2004, although in 2005, 2016 and 2019 the matches were abandoned without a ball bowled. Home and away we have won 16 and lost 14 of the matches with eight others never reaching a result.

There have been some cracking games since we met on the first-ever T20 day in June 2003, when we posted 153 all out, thanks mainly to our openers Derek Kenway (35) and James Hamblin (34) after which our ‘international’ attack of Wasim Akram (2-22), Ed Giddins, Alan Mullally, ‘Dimi’ Mascarenhas and Shaun Udal restricted them to 148-7 as we started with a televised win.

‘Dimi’ was to the fore at the Rose Bowl in 2006 when his four wickets enabled us to defend 112-5, but our 103-2 in 13 rain-restricted overs was not enough in 2007, and 85 all out (Liddle 4-15) in 2008 saw us lose by nine wickets in fewer than half the overs. It remains our lowest T20 total. We reversed that nine wickets defeat precisely in 2009 (Jimmy Adams 68*) and the following year won by 45 runs with 195-5, our highest at home v Sussex. 2011 was a much lower-scoring affair as 126-8 still saw us home by 35 runs, with our ‘spin twins’ Afridi (3-10) & Tahir (3-13) inflicting the damage.

Sussex posted their The Ageas Bowl record 203-5 in 2012 but then saw rain wash away a probable victory – and we went on to win our second trophy. In the following year, chasing just 119 to win, we left it to the final ball while in 2014 even a Luke Wright century left Sussex just seven runs short of a win (Carberry 87). Danny Briggs took 4-28 but would soon join our neighbours, while Wright’s 116* remains the highest score for any side against Hampshire in T20 matches – he has also scored 98, 83 and 82 against us. Cachopa’s 89* did the trick in 2015 and after another wash-out in 2016, Sussex won again in 2017 thanks to Jofra Archer’s 4-18. He took three more the next year and with 68 from Wright the visitors won again while 2019’s opening fixture saw another abandonment.

In 2020, Wright’s 83 plus 41 from Wiese took Sussex to 159-5 (Wood 2-29) and Briggs took 2-20 against his old team-mates while Alsop’s 43 could not carry us to victory. Our most recent meeting was  a high-scoring affair at the The Ageas Bowl last year and after Bopara and Wright made half centuries (Dawson 2-15) we chased down 184 to win it by six wickets, led by our captain’s 102.