Hampshire Hawks lose in the gloom at the Rose Bowl

Hampshire Hawks lost out by a narrow margin to the Essex Eagles in the Twenty20 competition, as gloom descended over the Rose Bowl.

John Crawley pulled out injured just before the start of the match, with Lawrence Prittipaul taking his place in the side. Wasim Akram taking over the roll of captain won the toss and invited the Eagles to bat.

Man of the Match Zimbabwean Andy Flower dominated the early scoring hitting 8 fours and a six in his 44 ball stay, he found good support lower down the order from Mark Pettini, but the 155 did not seem a winnable total in their allocation. Wasim AKram was the pick of the bowlers taking 2-19 in his four over spell.

James Hamblin fell for 22 with the score on 26, but Derek Kenway and Simon Katich put together 77 runs at a run a ball. Hampshire was always chasing the game, and despite only losing 3 wickets, struggled to catch up with some tight bowling.

Requiring 12 to win off the last over, Wasim Akram and Katich could only muster 7 off Dakin, to send the visitors home happy, and the sizable Hampshire crowd sad.