Vince blows Middlesex away

James Vince hit a brutal 84 off only 49 balls to lead holders Hampshire to the top of the Friends Life t20 South Division with a seven-wicket thrashing of previous leaders Middlesex at Richmond.

It looked as though Middlesex had set Hampshire a challenging target when Dawid Malan's 77 enabled the hosts to reach 164 for 5 on a slow, club pitch but Vince and his opening partner Michael Carberry made a mockery of it by putting on 89 in the first seven overs.

They made a relatively slow start but the floodgates opened in the third over when Carberry hit Kyle Mills, the New Zealand fast bowler, for four, four, six, four, four and two.

Two overs later, England Lions batsman Vince followed suit by cracking Gurjit Sandhu for five successive fours and when Carberry thumped Neil Dexter for a four and two sixes in the same over Hampshire had plundered 83 from the Powerplay.

Middlesex needed a huge slice of luck to break the stand when Vince drove Ravi Patel straight back down the pitch and Patel, the left-arm spinner, deflected the ball into the stumps to run out Carberry, who had made 43 off 16 balls with five fours and three sixes.

But there was no respite for Middlesex, as Jimmy Adams helped Vince add another 70 in eight overs before Vince, who had hit 12 fours and two sixes, drove Sandhu to Paul Stirling to deep mid-off. Adams fell for 29 in the same over but Hampshire romped home with 4.5 overs to spare.

Hampshire bowler Dimitri Mascarenhas had taken an early grip on the game by having Stirling caught on the midwicket boundary by Adam Wheater and Joe Denly at cover by a diving Adams in a four-over spell that cost only 19 runs.

Middlesex were contained to 57 in the first 10 overs before Adam Voges broke the shackles by hitting Liam Dawson for two fours and a six in one over and going on to share a third-wicket partnership of 55 in seven overs with Malan.

Voges had made 28 off 17 balls when he heaved Vince to Carberry on the midwicket boundary and Malan found an even more productive partner in Adam Rossington who helped him add another 52 in only four overs.

Rossington also hit three fours and a six in his 26 off 16 balls before he pulled a Danny Briggs full toss to Dawson on the square leg boundary and Malan had struck nine fours and a six when he was caught at long on off the last ball of the innings.