Report & Reaction: Hampshire Hawks v Rangpur Riders, GSL

Shan Masood made his mark in his very first game as a Hawk, as his 56 from 41 and experience in the Super Over led Hampshire Hawks to victory in their first match of the 2024 Global Super League.

Liam Dawson starred with the ball as the two sides couldn’t be separated after 20 overs each, with the Hawks getting over the line in the one over decider.

Chris Wood won the toss and elected to bat first, with Tom Prest and Ali Orr opening up for the Hawks, and the latter was off the mark with a boundary as he cut his first ball through backward point.

The right handed Prest appeared slightly frustrated when he danced down the track pace bowler Mohammad Saifuddin and edged through short third man and backward point for what turned out to be his only boundary.

Zak Chappell removed the dangerous batter in his opening over, and the Derbyshire pacer doubled up when Joe Weatherley chopped on for nought three balls later – he went on to claim career-best figures of 5-23.

That brought Pakistan men’s Test captain Shan Masood to the crease, who only arrived in Guyana on Tuesday.

The left-handed duo of Orr and Masood looked to rebuild, as the Hawks reached 35-2 at the end of the powerplay, with Masood looking at home on the slow and low pitch.

He came down the track to off spinner Steven Taylor to bring up his first four with a drive through the covers, and launched Mahedi Hasan over the ropes for a first boundary in four overs.

His 49-run partnership with Orr was characterised by some superb running between the wickets with only four balls finding the rope during their stay together.

Orr, trying to up the ante, then fell victim to an excellent diving catch from the veteran Wayne Madsen off the bowling of Rishad Hossain, as he went for 28.

Toby Albert’s stay was a relatively short one when he was trapped lbw by Harmeet Singh – he reviewed but to no avail.

With five overs to go, the Hawks would’ve wanted a few more than 90 runs on the board but Organ was removed, edging Harmeet Singh behind to give the American his second.

As wickets fell at the other end, Masood soldiered on and showed his quality as he reached fifty on his Hawks debut by reverse sweeping Rishad Hossain for six.

Fuller and Dawson full in consecutive deliveries in the 19^th over, the former mistiming a slower ball whilst the latter couldn’t get back for a second.

Masood then fell too with four balls to spare, holing out to long off, and the Hawks ended their innings on 132 with Briggs and Baker both being caught on the boundary with the final two balls.

The Riders got off to a quick start in their reply, reaching 46-0 in the fifth over before Danny Briggs struck to claim his first Hampshire wicket since 2015 when Steven Taylor leathered a drive but straight to the hands of Liam Dawson.

The experienced all-rounder then struck himself, claiming two wickets in two balls when he removed Soumya Sarkar and Afif Hossain caught and lbw respectively.

He and Briggs turned the screw against the Riders, as the Bangladesh side took only 12 runs from overs 7-10, with Dawson finishing with tidy figures of 2-23 having bowled out his four overs just after the halfway point.

Pace was reintroduced and James Fuller removed Nurul Hasan for 24, well held by Weatherley at deep cover.

Wayne Madsen and Kushdil Shah consolidated but both orchestrated their downfalls as the duo were run out in the space of three balls of eachother.

Just three runs off both the 18^th and 19^th overs brought the Hawks back into the game, with the Riders needing seven from the final six deliveries.

James Fuller castled Harmeet Singh with the third ball, but a fumble in the deep allowed the Riders to come back for two off the final delivery to put the scores level.

Into a Super Over the two sides went – at 2.30am in the UK.

Chris Wood started well but was heaved over the leg side by Khushdil Shah as the Riders made 12, and James Fuller threatened to end the game quickly with a six off his first ball of the Hawks’ reply, but was outfoxed the next ball to give Zak Chappell a simple caught and bowled.

Two singles followed, and the Riders became favourites with the Hawks needing five from two, but Liam Dawson heaved the penultimate ball into the stands to give his side a remarkable victory.