Dave Allen: Hampshire At The Oval

Hampshire concluded their first T20 season in 2003 with a defeat at home against eventual Champions Surrey. In the following season came their first visit to the Oval, where Hollioake with 5-34, following 76* by Ramprakash, took Surrey to victory by 32 runs, although this time they lost the Final to Leicestershire.

Again in London in 2005, Hampshire recorded their first victory over the Londoners with Richard Logan (4-37) and James Bruce (3-20) dismissing them for 118. In 2007, we lost a rain-affected 10-over match at the Oval, as Doshi took 3-6. Ian Harvey and ‘Nante’ Hayward had brief T20 careers with Hampshire, but took two wickets each as we chased down 176 at the Oval in 2008, when three of our batsmen, Carberry, Lumb and Ervine, got into the forties.

2009 saw a low-scoring thriller at the Oval where Surrey posted 125-8; we then lost both openers for ‘ducks’, recovered thanks mainly to Chris Benham (39), but fell one run short of the Surrey total. In the following year, on our way to the title, Surrey won by 11 runs at the Oval. Opener Steven Davies posted 60, and Andrew Symonds who had previously hammered our attack for Kent in 2003 now top-scored with 63 for Surrey (Ervine 3-28).

We lost at the Oval in 2011, having slipped to 9-4 in pursuit of 152 as Chris Tremlett took 4-16 against us. We were successful in both games in 2012, not least at the Oval when Liam Dawson dismissed Kevin Pietersen with the first ball of a rain-affected match, which we won by ten wickets, scoring 63-0 in 5.4 overs. We concluded that season by winning our second trophy. In 2013 we won a low-scoring game at the Oval by seven wickets with 10 balls to spare, but this winning sequence was broken disappointingly in the semi-final at Edgbaston which Surrey won with four balls left (Ervine 47).

Surrey thumped us by 80 runs in 2016, thanks to Sibley (67) and Sangakkara (72), while six of their bowlers shared the wickets. In 2018 we could set a target of just 134, and despite losing Roy early on, Adam Finch hit 67 from 57 balls and Surrey won by seven wickets. Our only meeting in 2019 was at the  The Ageas Bowl but was abandoned with no play. Overall, we have now won 11 matches each, with two abandoned.