Dawson leads Hampshire past Yorkshire into One-Day Cup final

Scarborough Metro Bank One Day Cup Semi-final

Hampshire 304-6 (50 overs): Dawson 142 (116), Currie 61* (40), Milnes 3-73

Yorkshire 235-8 (41 overs): Ul-Haq 105 (97), Currie 2-47, Dawson 2-55

Yorkshire defeated Hampshire 18 runs (DLS Method)

Following a semi-final win over Yorkshire at Scarborough, which featured Liam Dawson’s stunning List A best of 142 off 116 balls, Hampshire advanced to next month’s One-Day Cup final.

Worcestershire, which won the 2018 edition of the game by 18 runs thanks to the DLS method, will face Hampshire at Trent Bridge on September 20 when Worcestershire defeats Somerset at home.

Imam Ul-Haq, the opener for Pakistan, impressed for 105 in reply to Hampshire’s 304-6, which saw England all-rounder Dawson brilliantly revive his side from 78-4 inside 20 overs.

In the 31st over, Yorkshire were well placed, going 171-3, and chasing a revised target of 254 in 41 overs due to heavy rain.

Prior to this, Currie had already made his own List A best of 61 balls that were 40 balls short.

Matt Milnes was excellent again as Hampshire fell out after being inserted, and Yorkshire successfully started the game.

Seamer Milnes took the first three wickets, including for visiting captain Nick Gubbins, who had earlier registered a career-best 7-38 in the second over of last Sunday’s group-stage victory over Sussex at Hove.

Before George Hill’s seam forced Ben Brown to play, he then removed Fletcha Middleton and Ali Orr.

In the 12th over, Dawson led 53-3 to make a sharp return catch on Ben Cliff, which was undoubtedly crucial.

Before sixth-wicket partner Currie hit the accelerator, the 35-year-old and 17-year-old Ben Mayes, who had 89 for the fifth wicket, helped turn the tide.

Currie’s maiden 50 came in 35 as Hampshire moved up from 180-5 after 40 overs, making it Dawson’s fourth List A century.

While both he and Currie improvised, winning 136 runs in the final 13 overs of the innings and 75 runs coming from the final five, Dawson finished with seven sixes and hit well down the ground and over cover and long-on.

After the rain started to fall, Kyle Abbott and Brad Wheal both bowled very sparingly with the new ball, limiting Adam Lyth and Imam to a 43-0 lead in the 13th over.

After a half-hour delay, Lyth pushed Eddie Jack’s second ball backwards, but Ul-Haq, who is returning for national team commitments after this game, calmly made it 98-1 with a 52-ball 50.

The left-hander joined Will Luxton and the other team to share 99 with him after being strong off his legs.

After a second half-hour rain break, Luxton pulled a few sixes, including one that came after the first, but he hit Jack with the second, falling for 30 and leaving his team with a score of 146-2.

Before Ul-Haq reached his fourth ton of the season’s campaign off 96 balls, James Wharton holed out to Currie shortly after.

However, he was denied a second-class opener by Jack for a direct hit, and Fin Bean followed as Yorkshire fell to 171-5 in two overs, conceding a crucial three wickets for 10.

After seven wickets, Yorkshire, which had previously lost Hill and Harry Duke to Brad Wheal and Dawson, needed 47 of 4.5 overs.

From there, they subsided, with Dawson capturing Milnes once more for his century with a 2-55 victory.

Anthony McGrath, Yorkshire coach:

“I think it’s been a bit of a funny game because we had a lot of fun with the ball for 38 overs and they obviously batted well.”

Daws is a fantastic player, but it was a little too much to give up 120 from the final ten overs. However, despite this, our game was cruising, with Imam and Will Luxton following, Imam and Adam Lyth giving us a strong start, and then Imam and Will Luxton.

“Obviously, turning on and off is not easy.” However, when the revised target was reached, we discussed 115 from 15 overs and nine wickets in hand in the dressing room. You’d be more than content if you saw that in a T20 game.

The original plan was to reduce the number of overs to five or six with wickets in hand. But if we’re being honest, other than Imam, we all appeared to have experienced a little brain fade, probably by swinging a little too hard.

“I believe it would have worked,” according to the coach who ran the team in this competition.

Scott Currie, a Hampshire all-rounder:

“Everybody involved at the club is obviously a big deal and a big deal any time they play knockout cricket and advance to the final.

We’ve had a good comp record since it was first introduced in 2021, and we obviously did well in 2023 (losing Leicestershire in the final)! The current goal is to make an additional attempt.

“Daws’s innings, undoubtedly, is the headline, which is almost what you’d expect from a player of his caliber. But Ben Mayes deserves praise for putting us in a position where we could try to kick on when he was 17 years old to read a situation like that.

With 300, we were well over what we anticipated, and the second inning was odd. They were probably in charge for a large portion of that, and it kind of ebbed and flowed.