Hampshire Slip to Away Defeat Against Essex Eagles

Michael Carberry starred with the bat, but Hampshire fell to a seven-wicket NatWest T20 Blast defeat against Essex Eagles at Chelmsford.

Carberry (30) top-scored and was well-supported by James Vince (29), but the visitors were restricted to 124-9 off their 20 overs.

In reply, Shahid Afridi, Kyle Abbott and Gareth Berg took a wicket apiece, but the total the hosts reached the total without issue to see Hampshire record their second defeat of the competition.

Hampshire got off to a difficult start, losing Rilee Rossouw (4) in the second over of the game with the score 6-1 off the opening two overs.

Carberry looked in excellent touch from the off, striking three back-to-back boundaries to see 24 runs come from the fourth over to move Hampshire onto 40-1.

Vince was also on the charge, hitting three quickfire boundaries, but in the first ball after the powerplay, he edged behind as Ravi Bopara made the breakthrough.

Tom Alsop (9) was then dismissed shortly after to reduce the visitors to 67-3 in the ninth over as the wickets restricted Hampshire’s ability to score quickly and build a partnership.

Carberry looked to accelerate, but picked out Adam Wheater at point with Bopara claiming yet another scalp to reduce the visitors to 84-4.

Hampshire struggled to find the boundary, and the pressure told with two further wickets falling in quick succession just as the visitors nudged past 100.

The wickets continued to fall, as McManus was bowled by Bopara (4-19) to leave the visitors on 109-7 with just three overs remaining.

Kyle Abbott (2) then came and went before Mason Crane (3) was bowled by Mohammed Amir (1-18), but Gareth Berg (11*) helped guide his side to 124-9 at the interval.

Hampshire got off to a promising start in reply, with Abbott (1-27) picking up the wicket of Chopra (2) on his first ball of his spell to reduce the visitors to 6-1 in the second over.

However, Dan Lawrence and Wheater did not let the early wicket affect their scoring rate, propelling their side to 51-1 after the opening powerplay of six overs.

Vince then introduced spin for the first time in the evening with Crane and Afridi bowling in tandem but the partnership for the second wicket moved past 50 runs.

Lawrence (47) fell short of his half-century after chipping one straight back to Afridi (1-25) to reduce Essex to 82-2.

Zaidi came in and played in a traditionally aggressive way, hitting a maximum to take Essex’s total beyond 100 in the 12^th over and within 25 runs of victory.

The all-rounder (17) then hit another boundary in the same over, but soon departed, with Berg (1-36) making the breakthrough as the hosts moved onto 113-3 in the 14^th over.

However Bopara (11*) ensured the home-side reached their target without further loss, sealing the win for his side.