Derek Kenway century leads the way for the Hawks

Hampshire Hawks came to life at The Rose bowl following a scintillating 99 run victory over Somerset Sabres, led by a superb batting performance by Derek Kenway, and a sound bowling performance with 4 wickets from Dimitri Mascarenhas.

Kenway happy

A good crowd at The Rose Bowl risked the threat of showers, as John Crawley opted to bat first when winning the toss, and duly shared in an opening stand of 138 with Kenway that set the match up. Crawley scored at a run-a-ball for his 66 runs before being deceived by a flighted ball from Ian Blackwell and was stumped. Kenway was joined by Aussie Simon Katich as they upped the tempo. Kenway stroked the ball around the park, belying his poor early season form to bring up his first One-Day century off 133 balls. Katich after an unsteady start then followed the style with an unbeaten half century. In all Derek Kenway hit 13 fours, scoring the best NL/Sunday score for Hampshire since Matthew Hayden in 1997.

A challenging score but not impassable was the talk at tea, but with Wasim Akram and Ed Giddins back in the side after illness and injury, Hampshire were in no mood to let this one get away, and it was a case of a steady fall of wickets led by a four wicket spell from Mascarenhas, two wickets for Giddins and some late spin from Simon Katich.

The Sabres were never really up with the clock and it was only a late flurry from Gareth Andrew and wicket-keeper Rob Turner that brought the tally to within 100 of Hampshire's score. Simon Francis was superbly caught by the diving Alan Mullally (<---- see photo album - May 2003).

Hampshire have a week off before flying to Edinburgh at the weekend for their first encounter with Scotland.