The changing world of Mason Crane and Hampshire Hawks

CHARLIE PETERS: Crane is impressive company. He’s affable, and very easy-going in conversation. But there’s a steely determination there, a sense of self-belief... which both he and his teammates will need at T20 Blast Finals Day this weekend

In the grand scheme of the world, four years doesn’t seem like an awfully long time.

But cricket is a relentless beast, one where hot takes and opinions come and go like cabinet ministers. Add into the mix the small matter of a global pandemic, and the summer of 2017 feels like it might as well belong to a different universe.

“A lot has changed,” agrees Mason Crane. Then aged 20, the fresh-faced leg-spinner had played just four T20 games for Hampshire. “My international debut was my fifth T20. I wasn’t experienced at all back then.”

Crane rose to the challenge. His four overs went for just 24 runs, while in his second England appearance – the third T20 of the series – he claimed the key wicket of AB de Villiers. It proved to be his last T20I to date. A solitary Test cap came that winter, seeing him follow a path well-trodden by Scott Borthwick: another young leggie thrown into the fiery pit of an Ashes tour already lost.

After multiple stress fractures hampered his involvement through the 2018 season, it looked a long way back for this bright young spark.

But, yet again, things – or, more accurately, Crane – changed.

“I think [the injuries] changed me quite a bit,” he admits. “I guess I’m older and a bit more experienced now. I’ve played in quite a few big games now, so I never feel like it’s going to get on top of me or anything.”

^{Mason Crane is preparing for T20 Blast Finals Day with Hampshire}

It shows, too. Drafted for £50,000 by Shane Warne’s London Spirit in the initial Men’s Hundred, Crane was one of very few bright sparks for the Lord’s side, in what proved to be a calamitous first campaign.

As the more experienced pieces of Warne’s puzzle collapsed from every side around him, the 24-year-old was one of Spirit’s few squad members to emerge with more credit than they had entered the competition.

Crane’s economy rate of 7.2 made him the sixth most economical of bowlers to have delivered at least 10 sets of five – some effort given the general sense of chaos that surrounded the tournament’s weakest side.

And with another big game ahead of him on Saturday at Edgbaston, Crane is optimistic for his county’s chances.

“I’m feeling good, feeling confident. Obviously we’ve been on a bit of a journey to reach this point, so we feel like we’ve got a bit of momentum from all that.

“There are some games we’ve won that we’ve had no right to win, and that’s testament to everyone really. It’s probably been easier for us in the sense that at one stage we were dead and buried, so it was pretty simple what we had to do: we had to win every game, we weren’t allowed any slip-ups, and it was pretty clear-cut from then on really. All out, flat out trying to win every single game. Every game’s been a final for us until now.”

Crane believes the quarter-final performance against Nottinghamshire was indicative of the Hawks’ fighting spirit.

After struggling to a sub-par 125 for 9 at Trent Bridge, Hampshire looked out of it. And when Joe Clarke fired the Outlaws to a commanding position of 66 for 1, they seemed, to all intents and purposes, “dead and buried”.

“No one gave up. No one blinked an eye. We all had a job to do, and we kept doing it till the very end. It’s quite a brave thing to do that, and that’s led us to where we are now.”

You wonder if the Crane of 2017 would have been able to respond to the situation in quite the same way.

“When you’re really young and you’re just starting out, A - you’re a bit happy to be there,” he suggests. “But B – everything is moving very fast, so you always feel on the defensive a little bit. Even if they don’t, you always feel like [the batters] are trying to hit you for boundaries every ball, they’re hitting it harder than you’re used to. You always feel slightly on the back foot.”

^{Crane enjoyed a good spell with London Spirit in The Hundred}

Crane is impressive company. He’s affable, and very easy-going in conversation. But there’s a steely determination there, a sense of self-belief. At 24, now he knows he has the tools to take games by the scruff of the neck. He’s changed.

“Having played a lot more games now, I’m probably more comfortable to go ‘I’m going to try something that’s the right thing to do’, or ‘I can move that fielder up’ and be more attacking, stuff like that. The game is always evolving and changing, and I think you have to move with it, or you’ll be left behind.”

The leg-spinner’s freedom to bowl aggressively speaks of the confidence bestowed in him by captain James Vince. And it’s a feeling that’s more than reciprocated.

“He’s been brilliant,” Crane says. “His leadership is second to none. The way he gets everyone rallied up in the big games – he’s a serial winner. Every tournament he seems to play in, he wins, and that’s not an accident. That’s not a surprise either, to anyone who knows him. It’s brilliant having him in the side, he’s a great leader, he’s a great player. Him creating that environment where we can get the most out of every player has been what’s led us to Finals Day.”

Indeed, it’s been key performances from Hampshire’s unsung squad members that have helped get them to Edgbaston. Crane speaks highly of the youngsters that have played their part: “A lot of the players in our side aren’t the big names, but they’re real key components for us and they’re brilliant players. There’s a number of guys who’ve stepped up this season, more than perhaps has been expected of them. It’s great to see.”

One such player is Joe Weatherley. With the Hawks needing a win - and a rapid-fire chase - against Glamorgan to stand a chance of qualifying for the knockouts, Weatherley struck a ridiculous unbeaten 43 from just 13 deliveries to see his side into the quarter-finals.

It was the perfect knock to represent Hampshire’s fightback: after sitting at the bottom of the South Group just a month earlier, they were now watching relatively unheralded batters strike at over 300 to win the game with an over to spare.

^{The leg-spinner is an affable, determined character}

“Joe’s been brilliant,” says Crane. “He’s been a real find. He’s not played regularly or consistently in our T20 team before this year. A day like Finals Day is where he can really make a name for himself.”

The stakes are high, for Weatherley and his teammates. It’s a day with a lot riding on it for Crane, who is desperate to take home the Blast trophy.

“It would be unbelievable,” he exclaims. “Taking into account the last eighteen months, where at one point we were all fearing that sport and our game were going to go, taking into account how hard it’s been on everyone, and then this season has been an unbelievable rollercoaster.

“We couldn’t get going, we were looking around the dressing room thinking ‘we’ve got a really good side here but nothing’s clicking’. We’ve gone through every single emotion this season, up down and otherwise, so to win a trophy at the end of that would mean the world to me, and for the rest of the team as well.”

To do so, they will first have to deliver against Somerset, Hampshire’s opponents in the day’s first semi-final.

“We play Somerset a lot,” says Crane. “They’re a very good side, we know that. Everyone’s seen what they can do and the players they’ve got, they’re an exciting team. But so are we. We beat them really comfortably at home earlier in the season, but that doesn’t mean anything now. It’s a one-off game, it’s going to be who gets out the blocks fastest and stays ahead [that wins], I think.”

For a team that have treated every game like a final, it’s a situation that Hampshire have got used to this season.

Their last Finals Day appearances saw them dumped at the semi-finals. The team they lost to? Nottinghamshire. The year? 2017. Four years ago.

For Mason Crane, and for Hampshire Hawks, a lot has changed.