Mascarenhas issues challenge to Hants

Hampshire Royals captain Dimi Mascarenhas has challenged his batsmen to improve after his side’s first home Twenty20 defeat in nearly two years.

The Royals lost their first game – following the abandonment of their opener at Sussex - by six wickets after being restricted to 157 for 6 by Middlesex.

“We know how to play t20 but there are no excuses – we were 20 runs short,” said Mascarenhas. “It’s just a matter of the top order knuckling down and not throwing their wickets away.

“I just felt there were a few soft dismissals and that’s cost us in the end. We lost early wickets and we couldn’t come back from that.”

Jimmy Adams was out for 25 and Michael Carberry, Neil McKenzie and Sean Ervine were all dismissed cheaply. Of the top order, only James Vince impressed with an unbeaten 64.

Following the postponement of Hampshire’s game against Surrey at The Oval on Wednesday, following the death of Tom Maynard, The Royals are next in action at home to Kent on Friday night.

Mascarenhas added: “We’ve got a good chance to get in the nets and think about where we went wrong. The boys are disappointed. They’re not stupid, they’re experienced guys and they know where they’ve made mistakes. They’ll be knuckling down to ensure that doesn’t happen again.”



Date: 20/06/2012 18:48:25 by MBaldwin
In: Today | Hampshire |