Match preview | Hampshire Hawks v Gloucestershire
30 June 2022
After the LV= Insurance County Championship draw with Lancashire, Gloucestershire are back in T20 Vitality Blast action tomorrow when they travel to The Ageas Bowl to take on Hampshire Hawks.
The Shire will be heading to Hampshire in the hunt for a win and two points to drag themselves back into contention for a quarter-final spot.
The Hawks currently sit in fourth position in the table on 14 points having won seven, lost five and two no results. Glos are currently one place below Hampshire in fifth having won five, lost five and two no results.
Last time out Glos suffered a narrow nine-run defeat to the Hawks at the Seat Unique Stadium. After winning the toss and electing to field first, the Shire started brightly with Mohammad Amir picking up the two wickets of James Vince and Tom Prest in the powerplay. At the end of their 20 overs Hampshire totalled 178 for seven.
Gloucestershire’s reply did start at they wished with Mile Hammond was caught at extra cover off the bowling of Chris Wood from second ball of the first over. Ian Cockbain and Chris Dent steadied the ship but both fell in the last over of the powerplay to leave Glos 49/3. At the half way stage of the innings Glos were 78/5 and facing an uphill battle and despite a late onslaught from Benny Howell the Shire fell nine runs short of the winning target.
Speaking ahead of the trip, Head Coach Dale Benkenstein, said: “Last time out against Hampshire we felt that we did enough to beat them, but we let a few extras go through that we could have prevented. We know what we are up against and we know what we have to do now to try and reach the knock-out stages.
“We are looking forward to the trip on Friday and I feel we are ready and that we have the team to put in a performance.”
Benkenstein has picked his squad ahead of the trip with Graeme van Buuren being named in the travelling party for the first time since he picked up a shoulder injury in the County Championship match at home to Somerset in May.
Paul van Meekeren also returns to the squad following his two wickets for the Netherlands against England in Amstelveen.
Your Glos squad to travel to The Ageas Bowl…
The game is live on Sky Sports starting at 7pm which means no live stream on the Match Centre.
We will be back on the live stream for the Middlesex game on Sunday 3rd July at 14:30. Get your tickets for the final T20 home game by clicking here.
