Bouchier, McCaughan plunder record score as Hampshire down Essex

Maia Bouchier and Ella McCaughan pulverised 158 runs together as Hampshire recorded the fifth-highest T20 score in Utilita Bowl history to thrash Essex in the Women's Vitality Blast.

Bouchier hammered 92 off 53 balls, and McCaughan 68 in 39 in a brutal batting display on a stunning batting track.

The 215 that Hampshire racked up was only bettered by three Hampshire Men scores and Australia Men at Utilita Bowl, and eclipsed the previous 197-run high in women's matches at the ground.

Lauren Winfield-Hill, on loan from Yorkshire, thumped 69 but couldn't prevent Essex from falling to a 25-run defeat in front of 4378 spectators - a highest for a non-Hundred or international women's match at the ground.

Having been stuck in by Essex, it took four balls for the first boundary - McCaughan tickling around the corner - and for the following 19.2 overs the ball barely left the perimeter.

Hampshire were without overseas Charli Knott due to visa issues, having left the country after the first Metro Bank One-Day Cup block.

McCaughan was the initial trailblazer for the innings, with her off-side timing particularly strong, as Bouchier rotated the strike. But Bouchier ended the 78-run powerplay with three fours off both Kate Coppack and Eva Gray. Bouchier and McCaughan had strike-rates over 200 from the first six overs.

Maddie Penna and Grace Scrivens slowed things for the two overs out of the powerplay, but only temporarily as the batters prioritised pushing runs over boundaries.

Bouchier reached her half-century first in 31 balls, her 11th in T20s, before McCaughan reached the milestone for the second time in 28 deliveries.

Bouchier then turned up the power. Boundaries flowed off her bat in 360 degrees, including a rarely seen switch hit. In her innings, she had more fours than dots, before adding to a huge six over the long midwicket rope.

The first-wicket reached 158 runs, higher than any partnership during the Charlotte Edwards Cup era, before McCaughan was undone by a slower ball from Esmae MacGregor for a career-best 68.

Bouchier fell one shy of her best of 93 when Scrivens bowled her, but the last four overs didn't see a massive slowdown, as Freya Kemp's first appearance of the summer returned 20 off 13, with Georgia Adams 22 off 13.

Winfield-Hill copied Bouchier and McCaughan's approach by thrashing a fifty in 26 balls but it couldn't keep up with the required rate. Wickets fell regularly at the other end. Scrivens skied to mid-on, Lissy MacLeod pinged to long-on and Cordelia Griffiths picked out deep midwicket.

Winfield-Hill was starved of boundaries out of the powerplay, and scored just one after reaching her half-century. The frustration caught up with her as she was excellently caught at short fine leg for 69.

Australian Penna whacked a quartet of sixes over square in a scintillating 17-ball 38 but it wasn't enough as she and Jo Gardner fell in the death overs, with Bex Tyson picking up 3 for 40.