da realbet： Having begun the season with high hopes after their overseas signing, thehighest paid player on the county circuit, Shane Warne, and acquiring theservices of Allan Mullally from Leicestershire, Hampshire would now have faced the possibility of
Andy Jalil25-Jul-2000
Dimitri Mascarenhas – delivered the decisive early blows
Photo © CricInfo
beat Middlesex convincinglyHaving begun the season with high hopes after their overseas signing, thehighest paid player on the county circuit, Shane Warne, and acquiring theservices of Allan Mullally from Leicestershire, Hampshire would now have faced the possibility of ending the season with no significant achievement if they had made their exit from this quarter-final of the NatWest Trophy.Now having despatched Middlesex so convincingly, by seven wickets, they stand just one step away from a place in a showpiece final.The visitors looked in control of this match all the way through except,perhaps, for a brief moment when their second and third wickets fell in a space of eleven runs: even then they were nearly two-thirds of the way towards theirvictory target of 128.Top-scorer of their innings, John Stephenson, 35, had given them a solidenough foundation in a low scoring game, putting on fifty for the first wicket with Giles White who was dismissed for 18, followed by Warne, promoted up the order and responding with a quick twenty from 19 balls.After Keith Dutch, with his off-spin had taken his second wicket, that ofStephenson, Jason Laney and Will Kendall saw their side home, putting on forty in nine overs during their unbroken fourth wicket stand in an innings of only 34.5 overs.Hampshire will, no doubt, be more than a little concerned about the absence of Warne from the semi-final as the Australian leg-spinner returns home in afortnight owing to commitments with his national team.Hampshire look to NatWest Trophy semi-final for consolation for the seasonStruggling at the bottom of Division One in the county championship andoccupying only a second division position in the National League, Hampshiremust look to their semi-final as a vitally important fixture to have thepossibility of showing a trophy for their season’s work.Having been asked to bat first, Middlesex could have had very little excusefor an utterly inept batting, even allowing for the slowness of the pitchand the heavy overcast conditions.They would have been grateful to the lower order of their line-up whichprovided valuable contribution to the 127-run total ( in 44 overs ) as noless than 54 of those runs were accounted for by the last two wickets.Hosts struggle against accurate bowlingWith just three batsmen managing double figures, one of whom was a numberten, it gave a fair indication of Middlesex’s struggle against accuratebowling.Hampshire’s bowlers struck early and having got the stranglehold on theinnings, refused to loosen the grip. Dimitri Mascarenhas led the attackclaiming his first two wickets in successive overs.He hit Michael Roseberry’s leg stump in his third over and in the next one,with a slight change of pace, a slower ball, he had David Alleyne mis-timehis lofted drive to be caught at mid-off. It was two down for seventeen andthe plight continued.And worse was to comeMark Ramprakash was trapped leg-before-wicket with the total on 41 and a runlater Allan Mullally, coming in as second change, held a return catch todismiss Andrew Strauss for 24. But worse was to come for Middlesex withtheir fifth and sixth wickets falling on 57. Two batsmen who were much among theruns in the two previous rounds, both failed.Justin Langer, who had hit a century in the third round became man-of-matchMascarenhas’ fourth victim and Paul Weekes, unbeaten with 71 in the lastround, fell for six.Shane Warne found considerable turn on this pitch and had two for fivebefore Richard Johnson took the long handle to him and distorted his figures alittle with four boundaries. There seemed nothing left of the Middlesexinnings on 73 for eight, but then came that late flourish.