Read the match report & hear reaction from Hampshire Men’s Metro Bank One Day Cup Quarter-Final match against Middlesex at Radlett Cricket Club.<\/p>\n
Thursday 28 August 2025<\/p>\n
ECB Reporters Network supported by Rothesay<\/p>\n
Ali Orr\u2019s second century of the tournament guided Hampshire into the Metro Bank One Day Cup semi-finals as they saw off Middlesex in their play-off at Radlett.<\/p>\n
The left-hander struck 108, batting through most of the innings to underpin Hampshire\u2019s recovery from 95 for five as they set their opponents a target of 230 with paceman Henry Brookes taking four for 53.<\/p>\n
Liam Dawson then stifled Middlesex\u2019s reply with his spell of four for 33, supported by fellow left-arm spinner Andrew Neal (one for 30) as the Seaxes were bowled out for 187 in 45.3 overs.<\/p>\n
Sam Robson top-scored with 48 and Toby Roland-Jones\u2019 late unbeaten cameo of 39 prolonged the contest, but it was not enough to deny Hampshire a semi-final date on Sunday, when they will face Yorkshire at Scarborough.<\/p>\n
Middlesex made three changes to the side that had clinched a tense win at Lancashire to secure their knockout place, including returns for Roland-Jones and Ryan Higgins who both sent down tidy opening spells.<\/p>\n
Despite that, Orr and Nick Gubbins built a steady partnership of 45 until Brookes struck with his second delivery, tempting the Hampshire captain into a mistimed pull that sailed straight to midwicket.<\/p>\n
Fletcha Middleton was next to depart, caught behind nudging at a Brookes outswinger and the seamer soon grabbed his \u2013 and Middlesex\u2019s \u2013 third wicket when Ben Brown was pinned leg before.<\/p>\n
Orr batted fluently, timing his shots on both sides of the wicket and steering Brookes to the point boundary to pass 50 for the second time in as many innings, but Middlesex continued to make inroads.<\/p>\n
Dawson, drafted in for his first appearance of the tournament, fell lbw to Sebastian Morgan, while Zafar Gohar\u2019s miserly stint of one for 29 brought him the wicket of Ben Mayes, caught miscuing a reverse sweep.<\/p>\n
However, James Fuller\u2019s spirited 42 provided the perfect foil for Orr, with the pair adding 96 from 18 overs before Higgins had the all-rounder caught in the deep.<\/p>\n
Having advanced to three figures in style by hooking Brookes for six, Orr eventually holed out to long on off Higgins, his departure effectively ending Hampshire\u2019s hopes of clambering above 250.<\/p>\n
Middlesex rejigged their batting order, promoting Nathan Fernandes to open in the wake of his match-winning 92 at Old Trafford and the left-hander continued in similar vein with two sweetly-struck straight drives to the rope off Kyle Abbott.<\/p>\n
Although Josh de Caires fell to Fuller\u2019s diving catch around the corner, the batting side still looked reasonably comfortable at 66 for one before they were decisively pegged back by the Hampshire spinners.<\/p>\n
Fernandes\u2019 innings of 42 came to an end when he was pinned leg before by Neal and Dawson then removed Ben Geddes in the same manner before having Higgins taken low at slip.<\/p>\n
Along with seamer Eddie Jack, the spin duo smothered their opponents\u2019 scoring rate in the middle overs and it fell to Robson to dig in, take advantage of rare stray deliveries and attempt to take the game deep.<\/p>\n
Joe Cracknell launched a brief counter-attack, clubbing a six and two fours from one Fuller over to reach 22 from as many balls, but the bowler took his revenge by dismissing both Cracknell and Gohar in the space of three deliveries.<\/p>\n
Brown\u2019s neat stumping to remove Robson brought Hampshire a third wicket with the score unchanged and that appeared to signal the end of Middlesex\u2019s challenge, but Roland-Jones went on the offensive, battering Abbott for a trio of off-side boundaries.<\/p>\n
He added 45 for the ninth wicket with Morgan, but Hampshire were not be denied and Dawson sealed victory by bowling last man Brookes in the 46th over.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was tough at times. I had to soak up a lot of pressure but we\u2019re really lucky to have a lot of experienced batters who came out and helped me and calmed me down and kept that momentum going \u2013 Liam (Dawson), Ben (Brown) and obviously James Fuller, we had that lovely partnership together.<\/p>\n
\u201cI played second fiddle to James, he was striking really well and when he put the bad ball away he put them back under pressure. When you\u2019ve got a guy like him down the other end it makes it easier.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere was a lot in it for the bowlers, but batting\u2019s often a challenge \u2013 you don\u2019t always get fluid runs on flat decks, you\u2019ve got to play what\u2019s in front of you. It wasn\u2019t really a six-hitting pitch \u2013 it was more about trying to get timing.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe always kept ourselves in it with how tight the bowlers were and I think fielding as well, Ben Mayes and Fletcha Middleton out on that boundary down the hill fielded really well saving ones and twos when we\u2019re defending 230.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a great team win for us, we\u2019ve had three really big must-win games and we\u2019ll look to bring that momentum to Scarborough on Sunday. I\u2019m looking forward to the trip, I\u2019ve never actually been!\u201d<\/p>\n
Ali Orr, Hampshire batter<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Read the match report & hear reaction from Hampshire Men’s Metro Bank One Day Cup Quarter-Final match against…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":94126,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[1721,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-100191","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cricket","tag-cricket","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100191","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=100191"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100191\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/94126"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=100191"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=100191"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=100191"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}