Essex Eagles v Hampshire
Vitality Blast
Sunday 12 August
The Ageas Bowl, Southampton
Hampshire Team | James Vince (c), Rilee Rossouw, Sam Northeast, Tom Alsop (wk), Liam Dawson, Joe Weatherley, Lewis McManus, Gareth Berg, Chris Wood, Ryan Stevenson, Mujeeb ur Rahman.
Essex Eagles Team | Adam Weather (wk), Varun Chopra, Paul Walter, Ryan ten Doeschate (c), Ravi Bopara, Dan Lawrence, Ashar Zaidi, Simon Harmer, Matt Coles, Peter Siddle, Sam Cook.
Toss | Hampshire, who elected to field.
Umpires | Jeff Evans & Neil Mallender
Result | No result. Match Abandoned.
Match Report | For the second time in three days, Essex were frustrated by the weather when rain left them with a point after their match with Hampshire at the Ageas Bowl was abandoned after just 7.5 overs.
Essex had also been left to settle for a point when the match with Gloucestershire on Friday at The Cloudfm County Ground fell victim to rain without a ball bowled on that occasion.
The match with Hampshire was delayed by 75 minutes after morning rain and following two inspections of the pitch, the umpires decided that an 18 overs per side match could take place starting at 3.45 p.m.
But the weather always looked the likely winner. Put into bat, the Eagles had reached 72 for four when heavy rain swept across the ground and the match was finally called off at 4.50 p.m.
In the little play that did take place, Paul Walter hit 22 in just nine balls that included 1 six and 3 fours before he was bowled by Mujeeb Ur Rahman. The Afghanistan spin bowler completely bemused Walter with his first delivery to leave the Eagles 49 for three in the sixth over.
Earlier openers Adam Wheater and Varun Chopra had fallen to Chris Wood inside three overs for 1 and 15 respectively as the Eagles reeled to 23 runs for 2 and leaving Ryan ten Doeschate and Dan Lawrence the responsibility of giving the innings some substance.
They had carried the score onto 72 before a horrific mix-up between the pair brought about the dismissal of ten Doeschate for 17.
Ten Doeschate played the ball into the offside and as both batsmen set off for the run, Lawrence decided against the run and just made his ground at the non-striker’s end before the wicket was broken by James Vince’s throw form cover.
However, Garth Berg then pounced on the ball and threw down the stumps at the opposite end where ten Doeschate was left stranded in the middle of the pitch. The skipper’s misery was compounded when the players scurried from the field immediately as the weather closed in.
Dan Lawrence was 16 not out from 8 balls at that stage before the interruption proved terminal.
The next action for the Eagles takes them to Lord’s to face Middlesex on Thursday night in the penultimate match of the season in the competition.
