Recent Match Report – Hampshire vs Lancashire Final 2022

Hampshire 152 for 8 (McDermott 62, Parkinson 4-26) beat Lancashire 151 for 8 (Croft 36, Fuller 2-19, Dawson 2-23) by 1 run

Ellis had overstepped. Enough to have piqued the tv umpire’s curiosity and fractionally in order that a couple of appears have been required, by which period the fireworks had been set off and stumps ripped out of the bottom. And so the gamers reset, although not earlier than selecting their jaws up off the ground and placing their eyes again it. Quite how anybody continued, even for yet another ball, was a testomony to the way through which these professionals can swap on and off within the blink of a watch.

In some ways, how else might a profitable 2022 Blast marketing campaign have panned out for Hampshire? From the beginning, it has been one in every of getting back from the brink: overcoming a begin of 4 defeats in a row to win 11 out of 12 to achieve this ultimate. At the midway stage, they figured they have been about 25 to 30 quick with their 152. Just a few hours earlier, Lancashire had chased down 205 of their semi-ultimate in opposition to Yorkshire, with eight balls to spare, no much less. This? Surely no trouble.

But Hampshire clawed again from 72 for 1 within the eighth over, then from needing to forestall 11 from the ultimate seven deliveries. And then again from the brink of their very own jubilation and, after all, from the very actual risk of what may need been one of the outrageous about-turns within the historical past of this format. Heck, possibly even sport itself. As the mural of their gamers’ eating room states, beneath a photograph of Australian and Hampshire legend Shane Warne: “Never give up. Just absolutely never give up.” Well, they did not.

The Australian assumed it well, striking 30 of the powerplay’s 48 runs off just 17 deliveries, then doing everything within his power to shift the scoreboard along, all while he had more changes of partner than a bride at her Cèilidh. In the 11th over, he took the silencer off and carted Luke Wells for 21 runs, including a six into the Hollies Stand and another over long off.

What impetus there was at the end of that blitz, with 90 for 4 and nine overs remaining, was ripped out by a delivery from Parkinson at the start of the next over which carried on into McDermott and bowled him, leg stump. The right-hander dragged himself off, clearly irate he was coaxed into playing for turn away from him, and perhaps also wondering who would be the one to step up and fill the void he left. After all, of the 11 boundaries struck up to 11.1 overs, all but one – a four over extra cover by Joe Weatherly – came off his bat.

Ultimately, the answer was no one. Well, not really, anyway. Hampshire only managed two more fours and two more sixes as Dane Vilas stuck to tried-and-tested death plans with Gleeson, Hartley, Luke Wood and Danny Lamb sharing the last five overs between them, for 40 runs.

A remaining equation of 76 more to get out of 68 balls still favoured Lancashire, especially with Vilas at the crease. By no means as fluent as his 63 not out hours earlier, a six deliberately sliced over third man suggested he was getting his eye in. It also brought the hundred up at the end of the 12th over, but that satisfaction was tempered when Vilas fell in the 13th, failing to hit over his opposing captain Vince at cover for Dawson’s second.

Then came the turning point that wasn’t – or was, depending on your allegiances and views on fate. Crane seemed to have trapped Wells lbw, given out by umpire Millns. The left-hander seemed resigned to his fate but rolled the dice with a review and came up big. Ball tracking showed a predicted path beyond leg stump, even hinting that Crane sent down a googly, leaving the leg spinner and his teammates utterly bemused as they watched the big screen.

Even as the great Australian hype Tim David came and went for 8, this time Hampshire ending up on the right side of a review to a plumb lbw off James Fuller. And so the continued presence of Wells carried greater importance as the game stepped further into the death.

Wells was on strike for the start of the penultimate over against Wood, with a seemingly improbable 23 required. With one ball left in the 19th, that had come back down to 11 thanks to a six lifted over deep backward square leg, a four carved through midwicket and then a heart-stopping skier which inexplicably landed between McDermott and Wheal at short fine leg.

Just as it looked like the gods were smiling on Wells and Lancashire, a tip-and-run to obtain the strike for the final over resulted in disaster. Vince gathered perfectly, set himself and threw down the stumps at the non-striker’s from cover. Given how things panned out, the value of the run saved was as integral as the man dismissed.

Four runs from the first three of the 20th and a perfect under-arm run out of Wood from McDermott meant the unlikely sources of Hartley and Gleeson had to try and find four from the final two without being dismissed to win. Even with their unlikely do-over, they fell one short.

However you determine to sq. all this, whether or not of Hampshire, Lancashire or impartial, you will be in little question of the glory of this recreation. At a time when the Vitality Blast has discovered itself as a prop for an ongoing tradition struggle inside English cricket, there was one thing fairly stunning within the truth it had a real corridor-of-fame second, on the finish of what was the right instance of the sunshine and shade, growth and bust, rhythm and blues of Twenty20 cricket. Next time they discuss whether or not the Vitality Blast is absolutely all that, inform them the 2022 Final despatched you.