Report & Reaction: Essex v Hampshire Hawks Men, Vitality Blast

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Jordan Cox pillaged the highest score in this year’s Men’s Vitality Blast to keep Hampshire Hawks waiting over a quarter-final place.

Keeper-batter Cox smashed a remarkable 139 off 60 balls to whack the second highest T20 tally for an Essex player – with the already exited Eagles winning three of their last four matches.

The Hawks had set a massive 220 thanks to 84 from Toby Albert and swashbuckling 41 off 24 and 56 off 23 for Tom Prest and Hilton Cartwright.

But Cox won the match in the final over with two sixes as Hawks sit in the top four having completed their fixtures, and must hope Sussex Sharks and Kent Spitfires don’t have big wins to overtake them.

Hawks were without captain James Vince due to an illness – instead Chris Wood skippered for just the second time in the Blast, having captained the Hawks in last year’s Global Super League – while fellow opener Chris Lynn remained sidelined with a hamstring injury.

That meant Tom Prest was sent up to open with Toby Albert, having been stuck in.

He shook off his poor Blast form by leading Hampshire’s charge in the powerplay. They scored 53 runs, but only 11 had come off the impeccable Mohammad Amir.

Prest had hammered 41 off 24 balls before he missed a sweep and was lbw to Luc Benkenstein and then Joe Weatherley picked out deep square.

But from there Albert, Cartwright and the middle order fired the ball to all areas, with 134 runs coming in the second half of the innings.

Albert was largely an anchor to Cartwright’s brutal destruction – their contrasting styles were summed up in the number of balls their fifties came in; 40 vs 21 balls.

Cartwright had incredible fun with the famously small Chelmsford boundaries, especially straight down the ground, where four of his five sixes disappeared.

The pair put on 94 – a second time in three innings they had done the bulk of the scoring – before Cartwright skied one and then Benny Howell pinged to long on.

Albert then kicked on by taking Amir for five successive boundaries, but fell trying to end the over with bang, to which James Fuller followed by going 6464 then caught in the last over off Mackenzie Jones.

The 221 looked an imposing total to chase, but it was attacked with gusto.

Paul Walter and Michael Pepper took 19 off Sonny Baker in the second over, and while both returned to the dressing room in successive overs, Cox teed off.

The former Kent batter took 19 off Fuller and spearheaded 19 and 27 off Howell – whose two overs conceded 46 runs.

Charlie Allison, Matt Critchley, Benkenstein and Noah Than fell by the wayside, but Cox strode to a maiden 100 in 47 balls.

The game was still in the balance with 26 needed off the last two overs, but Simon Harmer was dropped over the boundary before Cox launched a gigantic six over midwicket.

Then 11 required off the last, which Cox managed with two sweet swings of the willow straight down the ground - it beat Dan Lawrence's 120 against Glamorgan in this year's competition, and sits just behind Graham Napier's 152* in the Essex annals.