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

Vitality Blast – Women: Hampshire Hawks 155/4 beat Essex 100/9 by 55 runs.

By Ben Kosky, ECB Reporters Network supported by Rothesay

Maia Bouchier blazed 87 from 55 balls, the highest score of this year’s Vitality Blast, before Amanda-Jade Wellington claimed a hat-trick to maintain Hampshire Hawks’ rise up the table with a resounding win over Essex.

Opener Bouchier – who featured in England’s recent T20I series against New Zealand but was left out of their World Cup squad – hit two sixes and eight fours as she batted almost right through the visitors’ total of 155 for four at Chelmsford.

Hampshire’s spinners then got to work, with skipper Georgia Adams’ four overs bringing her three for 18 before Wellington dismissed Jodi Grewcock, Flo Miller and Sophia Smale in consecutive deliveries to effectively end the contest.

The Australian leg-spinner finished with five for 18, her best haul of the tournament so far, as Essex stumbled to 100 for nine.

Put in under heavy clouds, the Hawks struggled to get the ball away during their first three powerplay overs and scored only 11, as well as losing Ella McCaughan, who skied Sophie Munro to point.

However, Bouchier – who had only faced two balls until then – made up for lost time as she clattered Kate Coppack’s next over for 17 and dispatched Munro for successive boundaries to provide the innings with impetus.

She and Adams added 58 from 42 and, although the captain missed a straight one from her opposite number Grace Scrivens, Francesca Sweet (35 from 30) seized the baton with a series of back-foot punches to the fence.

Bouchier’s reverse paddle off Coppack flew for six to bring up the 50 partnership and that was extended by another 20 until Sweet’s wicket brought Smale (one for 22) some reward for her tidy spell.

Hampshire’s score was already beyond 150 by the time a neat piece of glovework by Amara Carr off Scrivens (two for 33) dislodged Bouchier in the final over of the innings – and the home side were soon in trouble at the start of their reply.

Adams’ off-breaks brought the Hawks two wickets in an over as she returned the favour to Scrivens, who was lured out of her crease and stumped before Liberty Heap popped up a routine leg-side catch.

With Lissy Macleod miscuing Adams to midwicket, Essex limped to 27 for three at the end of the powerplay and, while Grewcock and Jo Gardner battled to stabilise the innings, a dearth of boundaries pushed them further behind the required rate.

Leg-spinner Wellington then ended Essex’s faint hopes in the 14th over, having Grewcock (30 from 34) stumped before Miller feathered one behind and Smale was castled by the hat-trick ball, which pitched and turned to hit middle stump.

Wellington completed her five-wicket haul by removing Gardner and Eva Gray and left-arm spinner Bex Tyson’s economical effort of one for 12 was somewhat overshadowed as the Hawks closed out a comfortable victory.

Hampshire leg-spinner Amanda-Jade Wellington said:

“That’s my first ever hat-trick, so it was exciting to get that monkey off my shoulder and do it here with the Hampshire girls. It was pretty special to do that and to get a five-for as well was cool.

“I’m jumping for joy but I’m also sad that the last wicket was Sophia Smale, she’s one of my best friends! I said to her afterwards ‘I’m so sorry, anyone but you!’

“It was an unbelievable effort from Hampshire. Georgia Adams was awesome, bowling a few UFOs as I call them – she’s someone you can rely on to keep the pressure on the batters and I reaped the rewards.

“Essex bowled it into the pitch and used the conditions well but we’ve got a squad where we can back our batters – if they start off slow, we know they’re going to catch up and the way Maia Bouchier went about it and the shot selection she played was incredible.

“We love the Boosh and the style of cricket she plays, we want to express ourselves out there and we all did that today. We haven’t even looked at the table to see where we are, but we are playing good cricket and gathering momentum in the T20.”

Essex head coach Stephen Parry said:

“Since I took this job in December, that’s the worst day we’ve had. The way we played was not how we have been doing but in a T20 season you have one or two days like that, which you have to accept.

“Hampshire are a good side and they obviously played well. When we got the ball in the right areas it looked quite challenging and they did that better than us, but they also batted and fielded better.

“I think we’ve got to look at how we regroup – every team’s time comes for that during the season. The challenge is how we bounce back and it’s probably a good time to get back into the 50-over competition and reset our mindset around that.

“The other day at Surrey we did a lot of good things and that was a missed opportunity with our fielding. But today we weren’t at the races, we do have bad days at the office and this was one of them.”