Hawks beat Surrey in rain-hit contest to go top

Hampshire’s defeat of Surrey to defeat Surrey on the DLS method in the T20 Blast was aided by a strong bowling display, but Middlesex’s match against Kent was canceled.

In the second game of a soggy south London double-header at The Oval, Hampshire put the hosts in front before putting the ball in their hands, limiting Surrey to just 14 boundaries, or 141-7, in a modest total.

No Surrey batter passed the Sussex batsmen by one wicket as no Surrey batter reached the 63-run mark in the ninth over before the rain came in, and the visitors won by 15 runs thanks to DLS to advance to the top of the South Group.

Hampshire won the toss, and Surrey was chosen to bat first, with the possibility that the weather would play a role.

Surrey won 18 from the opening two overs of seam, but South African spinner Bjorn Fortuin, who was playing in his place, duped Sibley into sweeping straight to John Turner for 13 in the third.

At the end of the six-over powerplay, Jason Roy started to relax, but Currie tempted Ollie Pope into sliding across his stumps before sliding straight into Albert’s hands before departing for 11. Pope left his team with a 51-2 start from eight overs after making 25 runs in three games starting the batting.

Sam Curran, the Hawks’ skipper, and Roy, who had been with them for the entire 20 overs, combined to make it 64-2 at the halfway point as the visitors were restricted to just 10 boundaries and four sixes.

Roy attempted to take Turner over the midwicket boundary, but Joe Weatherley was just inside the rope and departed for 37 as his side blew 67-3 in the 12th over, despite Roy’s third straight game leading scorer.

With five overs left, Surrey were 91-3, but Laurie Evans and Curran struggled to get used to the Hawks attack, and Curran hit back-to-back sixes to make it 21 runs from five balls before miscuing the final ball for Vince to catch and send Curran packing for 34 from 25 balls.

Weatherley was caught by Currie for one three balls after Tom Curran skied off Wood to finish the 19th over by dismissing Chris Jordan for eight off Currie (2-17).

Albert had a good chance of winning the reply when Roy and Dan Worrall made a sharp second-choke, but the Surrey bowlers kept the Hawks in check until the rain started to fall.

Sam Curran’s first powerplay run, which ended in 16 runs, led to the Hawks’ 50-0 lead.

Hawks eventually were called off after 8.2 overs with the score of 63-0 when they had 10 wickets in hand and were well ahead of the DLS rate of 48.

“It’s a good win,” the author said. It’s always a good idea to come here, put a good performance on the board, and get the desired outcome.

It’s a shame that it ended the way it did because of the weather, but it’s not our fault at this point. It’s four more points on the board and another strong performance from everyone.

Middlesex won the toss at Lord’s, running back to 2022, and chose to bowl first after a slightly delayed start. This was their first win at the Lord’s.

In the third over, Kent lost 21-1 after an attempted cut-off for paceman Helm to the keeper.

At the conclusion of the six-over powerplay, Kent fell to 54-1 with a powerful six over deep square as Tawanda Muyeye hit back-to-back boundaries off debutant Josh Little, who had already moved into the 30s.

At the conclusion of the eighth over, Joe Denly was soon stumped by Jack Davies at the second attempt off leg-spinner Hollman, who had just thrown a ball to Muyeye, who had already left for 34 from 26 balls.

Sam Billings left Crawley and attempted a reverse sweep off Hollman, but the Spitfires were unable to overcome the midway point, which made them 87-4.

On the 13th over, Chris Benjamin led his side to three figures before being run-out for a run-a-ball 15 and appeared to have a shoulder injury as he unsuccessfully dived to make his ground in front of Ben Geddes’ throw from the deep.

Crawley scored a 32-ball half-century off Hollman to give Kent a perfect start to their opening win over Gloucestershire.

Ryan Higgins took a good catch inside the rope to take 57 balls out of 34 before adding another after he had already attempted a third in succession.

As Helm had Grant Stewart and Wes Agar caught in the deep in consecutive deliveries, Tom Rogers made a light 16 but snuck away to make a hat-trick, leaving Nathan Gilchrist to fall to 115-9 as Kent dropped from 112-4 to 155-9.

Kent’s final man added 17 balls, including Fred Klaassen (14*), and Noah Cornwell, who had scored six on the final play, to finish unbeaten on 10 and draw level at 172-9.

“I’m really pleased with the way we managed to bounce back from a confidence standpoint even though we haven’t left tonight with the full points,” he said. The bowlers did a good job on the field, which was buzzing around.

“Hopefully that serves as a launching pad for us as we enter a very busy time over the coming weeks.” The approach we used to play this game has me completely thrilled, and it will undoubtedly serve as a benchmark for how we move forward.

Zak Crawley, a Kent batter:

It occasionally appeared to be a really good wicket, but occasionally it presented a challenge. It was unfortunate not to return to the field because we thought it would have been a 50-50 game in the end.