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

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Max Holden stole the limelight from Lhuan-dre Pretorius’s exhilarating debut as Hampshire Hawks and Middlesex tied a DLS thriller in the Men’s Vitality Blast.

South African wunderkind Pretorius hammered a 22-ball 44 as Hawks struck 63 either side of the rain delays.

Middlesex needed 76 to win after DLS recalculated the score, and after Chris Wood began with a maiden, Hawks were heavy favourites.

But Holden whacked 38 in 18, before Kane Williamson’s 23 and Ben Geddes’ 10 took Middlesex to the brink but both sides had to share two points.

It was Hampshire’s eighth T20 tie, and Middlesex’s third.

Pretorius only arrived in the UK on Thursday having finished an unofficial Test for South Africa A in Saint Lucia on Wednesday.

Jet-lag seemingly didn’t have any impact on Pretorius as he rocketed a front-foot pull to the boundary off the first ball of the match, after Middlesex had chosen to bowl first.

He continued with a well-timed clip off the pads and a wristy thrash through the covers to take two further boundaries off the opening over.

Hawks fans had been made to wait for Pretorius – who arrived with high expectations after leading the scoring charts in the SA20 in his homeland over the winter, including a debut unbeaten 97.

Dewald Brevis’ immediate impact only whetted the appetite for the second gun Proteas’ entrance, although it was somewhat dampened by the revelation that the pair would only be available until June 20 after being called up to the Test squad to face Zimbabwe.

After striking 15 off the first over, runs continued to flow off Pretorius’ bat to reach 29 off 14 balls – although James Vince was caught at cover point off Zafar Gohar.

Persistent rain hit after four overs and begun a two hour and 20-minute delay.

Play was almost restarted for an 11 over-a-side match but another shower forced another delay. Eventually, a six-over-a-side game was started and Pretorius got going again.

In two overs, he whizzed to 44 not out from 22 deliveries, including a bullet six over deep midwicket, with Toby Albert happy to just rotate the strike.

It took Hampshire to 63 for one, with DLS turning that into a 76-run target for the visitors.

Their hopes of chasing that were dented as Chris Wood begun with a maiden over – with just a leg bye on the total.

James Fuller started with another dot and leg bye before Middlesex finally kicked into gear.

Max Holden got away with an inside edge before carting over extra cover for four, over square for six and another inside edge for four boundaries in a row to take 19 off the second over.

Another 18 runs off the following over got Middlesex closer to the rate but just as Holden reached 38 off 18 balls he skied straight up in the air.

A Kane Williamson blast for six made sure the DLS par was level going into the final over, with 13 required.

Scott Currie went one, two, two with a dropped catch, two, a Ben Geddes four down the ground before a final ball bye to the wicketkeeper meant the DLS scores were tied.