Essex out of the Twenty20 (From Gazette)

Essex out of the Twenty20

10:00am Monday 29th June 2009

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It is the end of the road for Essex’s Twenty20 campaign.

Dimitri Mascarenhas and Sean Ervine excelled with both bat and ball to sink Essex by six wickets and book Hampshire’s place in the quarter-finals of the Twenty20 Cup.

Between them they took five wickets as the home side were restricted to 149 for six, and then they shared in an unbroken stand of 66 runs in seven overs to see their side home.

Their efforts with the ball largely explain why Essex had only 74 on the board after 13 overs of this contest at Chelmsford.

Mascarenhas removed openers Mark Pettini and Varun Chopra in his four-over spell, costing 14 runs, and Ervine went on to remove the next three batsmen and finish with three for 26.

Colchester’s Graham Napier did his best to try to leave Essex setting their opponents a more difficult task as he gathered three sixes while making 47 from 33 deliveries.

However, the real momentum to the innings came when Ryan ten Doeschate and James Foster were together – they put on 60 in five overs.

The Dutchman was out with the last ball of the innings when he skied the ball to cover, his 43 coming from just 22 deliveries and containing five fours and two sixes.

Foster also struck two sixes in his 23 from 19 balls, but it did not, as later events were to prove, threaten to be enough.

Although Napier soon removed Jimmy Adams when Hampshire replied, Essex had to wait until the visitors had moved to 81 before they were able to claim their next success.

The second wicket fell in the 11th over when left-arm spinner Grant Flower got rid of Michael Lumb for 26, made from 24 balls.

In his next over Flower briefly revived Essex’s hopes by picking up two more wickets with successive deliveries.

First of all, Michael Carberry was caught on the mid-wicket boundary after making 39 from 34 balls, an effort that included three fours and two sixes, then Imran Tahir was also caught on the boundary edge.

However, Ervine and Mascarenhas soon stamped their authority on the game with some belligerent blows to carry Hampshire past the winning post.

Ervine’s unbeaten 39 came from 22 balls, with the help of two fours and three sixes, while Mascarenhas finished with 27 not out from 17 deliveries.

Flower had the consolation of figures of three for 25 from four overs.

The defeat brings a sad end to Essex’s Twenty20 involvement this season. They failed to win either of their last two matches when the pressure was on to qualify for the quarter-final.

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