Hampshire Hawks beaten by eight wickets at Essex in Vitality Blast

HEAD coach Adi Birell insisted Hampshire Hawks "weren’t close" to their "best" after they lost by eight wickets against Essex on Thursday evening.

Dean Elgar showed off all his variations with his third fifty of the Vitality Blast to give Essex a comfortable fourth victory of the competition.

Elgar never looked fussed in chasing 167, as his 60 not out made in conjunction with Adam Rossington’s 18, Micheal Pepper’s 44 off 24 and Jordan Cox’s unbeaten 41.

Hampshire had been dragged a middling score by a late James Fuller flurry of 39 off 16 after Joe Weatherley had struck 48, but it wasn’t enough.

“We didn’t really get partnerships so it was tricky going. We were under par by quite some distance but I don’t think 200 was par, more like 180 – we were still off that," said Burell.

“With the ball we needed early wickets but it didn’t go our way and we didn’t really bowl or field very well.

“We weren’t close to our best and we haven’t been throughout this competition. We need to fire soon, although it isn’t through want of trying."

After losing James Vince and Ben McDermott within three balls of each other in identical swings to deep square, the Hawks seemed to tempo their innings towards a 160 total having been stuck in.

One reason for Hampshire’s tardiness either side of the powerplay was the dead-eye accurate spell from Simon Harmer – who on his 100th T20 appearance for Essex didn’t concede a boundary in his four overs.

Weatherley only scored four boundaries in his 48 but never looked bogged down. He was only denied a half-century when a straight drive smashed the non-striker’s stumps and he was lbw to Ben Allison next ball – Allison ended up with three for 44.

At 117 for six with 20 balls to go, it looked like Hampshire had undercooked their scoring – but Fuller entered to blast some crucial death overruns.

He played the biggest hand in the final three overs going for 14, 13 and 17 runs – with five six included and the total now looking closer to par.

Hampshire had an all-pace attack – with Liam Dawson ill and missing a Hawks T20 after 43 straight appearances – and learned the lesson of the faster you bowl, the further it goes.

Elgar had already swatted Chris Wood straight back over his head for six and took the quick run-scoring lead with his elegant risk-free hitting.

Pepper strode past 250 runs in this season’s Blast – surviving a drop on three – before his 80-run stand, off 47 balls, with Elgar was ended when he swished to long on.

Cox showed no interest in the six-hitting of his predecessors to make sure no collapse was forthcoming to put on an unbroken 59 with the ever-nonplussed Elgar.

He did open up with the winning post in sight with a couple of sixes off John Turner, as victory was secured with 20 balls to spare - with Cox classically driving to the boundary for an eight-wicket win.