Miserly Hampshire offer throwback to glory years as spinners prove key at Chelmsford

NICK FRIEND AT CHELMSFORD: For Hampshire, by no means perfect, this felt like a throwback of sorts: a middling, competitive score followed by a lesson in efficiency and a reminder of times gone by

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Chelmsford: Hampshire 155-6, Essex 142 - Hampshire win by 13 runs

Scorecard

By the standards of a Friday evening at Fortress Chelmsford, this was a low-key affair. While Andrea Bocelli was serenading the players of Italy and Turkey to mark the opening night of the European Championship, 600 spectators were spread across the perimeter of the Cloudfm County Ground – a scene as far removed from the Stadio Olimpico as one might find in English cricket.

The last time these home fans watched their side in Twenty20 action, Simon Harmer’s men were mid-crescendo, building up ahead of steam on a run that would ultimately bring T20 Blast glory for the first time at the end of the 2019 summer. Since then, behind closed doors, the shortest format has proven more problematic: last season, only Derbyshire won fewer games across the competition. It was a title defence in cliché only.

Hampshire, their opponents amid a glorious dusk, fared even worse in 2020, losing seven of their 10 matches – the latest drab campaign in the bizarre recent history of a county for whom a decade ago Finals Day was a sure-fire part of its annual schedule.

What has changed in the intervening period? “I often ask myself the same question, to be honest,” said Chris Wood, speaking to The Cricketer earlier this week. Wood, the club’s longstanding left-arm seamer, featured in perhaps the tournament’s most famous final, when a combination of injuries, runners, rule-checks, a tie and perpetual confusion saw Hampshire beat Somerset courtesy of fewer wickets lost.

“I try to look back and think of all those successful years, and I think we had a blend of some seriously good, experienced cricketers – the likes of Neil McKenzie, Dimitri Mascarenhas and Dominic Cork, but then we also had a load of players who were young and just fresh into the game. Myself, James Vince, Liam Dawson, Michael Bates and Danny Briggs all came through at the same time.

“I think that gel of experience and that younger youth and sprightfulness put us in good stead and I wonder whether you analyse it now, are those younger guys pushing as much as we were back then? And secondary to that, are our senior guys doing what the senior guys were doing back in those early years of those success?

“So, we’ve got a big part to play in that as well and now there’s no excuse in myself, Daws and Vincey being the young ones anymore. We’re all either side of 30 and it’s now about us to drive this team forward and try and get back to winning ways.”

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Simon Harmer in action for Essex

Tonight, he backed up those musings with the kind of spell with which he has become associated: bowling at the start and at the end, he conceded just 15 runs across his four overs, while Liam Dawson was similarly economical, to help Hampshire kickstart their white-ball summer. Their campaign had begun in familiar fashion on Wednesday, beaten convincingly at Canterbury against Kent, with Wood expensive.

Forty-eight hours later, and a return to the good old days: Hampshire were unspectacular with the bat, efficient with the ball and match-winning in the field. Mason Crane effected the runouts of Harmer and Sam Cook, only after Tom Westley, who made 44, had been left short of his ground by another fine piece of work by Ian Holland. Those moments of excellence – and Crane’s arm from the deep was particularly lethal – were sandwiched between a pair of fine boundary catches from Holland as Essex lost their way, having been well on course to maintain their perfect start to the tournament while Westley and Paul Walter were operating in tandem.

But once Walter danced past Crane’s leg-spin, the home side’s County Championship skipper fell four balls later and the game – just like that – had turned on its head.

Crane, having conceded 37 runs in his first 13 deliveries, gave away just five more in what remained of a highly impressive four-over quota that included a terrific battle with Ryan ten Doeschate, won comprehensively by the younger man, who should not be far from another international opportunity in white-ball cricket.

Brad Wheal was equally impressive; the fast bowler flew somewhat under the radar during the early stretch of four-day games, given the exploits of Mohammad Abbas and Kyle Abbott, but Wheal – Durban-born but an international for Scotland – has bowled quickly all season and ended proceedings in style by dismantling Jack Plom’s furniture when Essex needed 14 runs to win in the final over.

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James Fuller added late impetus for Hampshire with the bat

Earlier, Plom had fared better with the ball than on Wednesday, when his opening over against Somerset at Taunton was taken for 33 runs. For their part, Essex did little wrong in the field, restricting their visitors to a chaseable total on a hybrid pitch.

Joe Weatherley struck 42 and James Fuller whacked 26 in quick time, but barring a single over from Walter and a hint of punishment at the death for Jamie Porter, none of the home attack were taken down: rather, Cook was impressive and Aron Nijjar frugal, while also leaping well to catch James Vince at mid-on just when he was looking to break free from a solid, firework-free start.

The home team looked a batsman light, however; Harmer strode to the crease at No.7, with plenty riding on the contribution of overseas allrounder Jimmy Neesham, who bowled just a single over but looked in fine form with the bat – carried over from a game-clinching fifty against Somerset – until he fell to the left-arm wrist-spin of D’Arcy Short. His dismissal was part of a collapse that saw the last five wickets fall for just 22 runs as that lack of depth came to pass.

On this evidence, a repeat of 2019 seems somewhat unlikely, though many had written off Essex during that campaign as well. For Hampshire, by no means perfect, this felt like a throwback of sorts: a middling, competitive score followed by a lesson in efficiency and a reminder of times gone by, inspired by two men – Wood and Dawson – who remember those glory days only too well.

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