Northants clinch finals day place

TWENTY20 CUP QUARTER-FINAL, Northampton:
Northants 134-6 bt Hampshire 121 by 13 runs
Scorecard

Hall made 39 with the bat and took 3-25 with the ball

Northants booked their place in the Twenty20 Cup semi-finals with a 13-run victory over Hampshire at Wantage Road.

Andrew Hall starred with bat and ball for Northants scoring a quickfire 39 runs to drag his side to 134-6.

And the South African all-rounder took 3-25 as a Hampshire collapsed to hand the home side victory.

Northants will now face Sussex on finals day at Edgbaston on 15 August when a place in the final against Somerset or Kent will be up for grabs.

Hampshire captain Dimitri Mascarenhas won the toss and put Northants into bat. And it looked like his decision was inspired hen he dismissed Stephen Peters for a duck and Dominic Cork forced Rob White to edge to wicketkeeper Tom Burrows for five.

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Northants captain Nicky Boje was dismissed for five leaving the home side 16-3. But, despite eventually being reduced to 82-6, an unbeaten seventh-wicket partnership of 52 between Hall and Johan Van der Wath (14) saw the Steelbacks post a respectable score.

Hall then bowled James Adams for a duck in the second over before Lee Daggett heaped further pressure on Hampshire, dismissing Michael Lumb (26) with his first ball and forcing Michael Carberry (15) to edge to Niall O'Brien.

When Chirs Benham was caught on the boundary by Van der Wath and Liam Dawson was stumped trying to hit spinner Monty Panesar, Hampshire were struggling on 62-5 in the 11th over.

And once Mascarenhas, who made 36 off 24 balls, fell to Van der Wath, the Friends Provident Trophy winners lost four wickets in eight balls and handed a finals day place to Northants.

Hampshire captain Dimitri Mascarenhas told BBC Radio Solent:

"They shouldn't even have got 100 and in the end we couldn't even chase 135.

"The batters have to have a really good look at themselves and say we have some plans and we didn't stick to them.

"We knew if we had wickets in hand then we could make a good charge at the end but it wasn't to be and we just blew it really."

Northants captain Nicky Boje told BBC Radio Northampton:

"It was a top effort for us. Getting that total wasn't easy, losing all those wickets up front.

"Andrew Hall played well, but the effort in the field and in the bowling has been excellent, and that's probably where we won the game.

"With our bowling unit at the moment, we feel that we can defend whatever runs we have on the board."