This year’s Metro Bank One Day Cup was always going to have an element of unpredictability. Player movement and new team identities meant that a settling-in period was inevitable. Hampshire, the only unbeaten side going into today’s games, sat one point clear of the chasing pack.
The Blaze lost their opening game at Trent Bridge against Lancashire, but two hard-fought wins followed, leaving little to separate the sides. Today however, they put in a professional performance, ensuring an impressive seven-wicket victory with 79 balls to spare. An unbeaten 112 from Tammy Beaumont and 58 not out from Georgia Elwiss proved decisive for The Blaze.
With a bowling unit that squeezes teams and limits scoring opportunities, The Blaze’s international-class batting line-up must have been pleased when Hampshire, having won the toss, chose to bat first.
Had Beaumont won the toss on a chilly, overcast day on the banks of the Trent, she would have chosen to bat. Had you asked her how she would have wanted the day to unfold, she would have been hard-pressed to ask for anything more.
On a used pitch, it wasn’t going to be a classic, but the shorter boundary towards the PKF Smith Cooper Stand offered the potential for runs if a batter got their eye in. That didn’t happen for Hampshire, as only Ella McCaughan, on the back of her maiden List A hundred, passed fifty, scoring 57 off 77 balls. There were hints of McCaughan evolving from potential to reliability, with her third consecutive score over fifty reinforcing her growing consistency.
McCaughan and opening partner Maia Bouchier spent the first 15 balls in watchful silence. McCaughan was tempted by a couple that were just too close, but it was only a matter of time before The Blaze offered her some width, and she was off.
Charley Phillips, though inconsistent this season, retains the side’s full faith, having impressed in her debut year. Together with Grace Ballinger, she has started to form a partnership with real potential.
While the fall of many wickets seemed inevitable, Hampshire lost just one in the powerplay: Bouchier for 14, as she chopped a Ballinger delivery onto her stumps. Having made 77 and 61 in her previous two innings, Bouchier would have wanted to dominate in a game her former Southern Vipers and now England coach would have hoped for.
It was the spin of Sarah Glenn and Josie Groves that ensured Hampshire never got going. Glenn’s three for 36 saw the middle order limp back to the changing rooms at the Radcliffe Road end.
There seemed to be no outlet for Hampshire, and the only saving grace was an eighth-wicket partnership of 45 between Freya Davies and Poppy Tulloch, which left their side with a total of 189 for seven.
Hampshire weren’t finished yet. In Davies and Lauren Bell, they have an opening attack with experience and skill, and they were pitted against a side looking to get ahead of the game in the powerplay and pick up a valuable bonus point. That pursuit can carry risks if you take your eye off the task at hand, and The Blaze’s first three wickets were self inflicted. Amy Jones lobbed a catch to Lauren Bell for eight, and it was Bell’s turn to take the wickets of the Bryce sisters: Kathryn picked out Abi Norgrove at point for two, to a shot that, when she usually hits through, would have raced for four. Sarah Bryce, misjudging the pace, gave Poppy Tulloch a simple catch.
The Blaze were faltering at 33 for three, but they still had Beaumont steadily accumulating runs and Georgia Elwiss, playing her first game against her old teammates, was in determined mood. Her first scoring shot was thumped through extra cover, and together with Beaumont, set about quietly and calmly rebuilding the innings and nudging the run rate in the right direction.
Beaumont brought up her fifty from 73 balls and her innings was straight from the textbook. The paddles and sweeps were well-judged and not overdone, and she looked as in command as she did in the 2023 Ashes Test match when she scored 208.
With England’s selection of openers showing more consistent form than Beaumont this year, it felt like the game she would need to put in a performance, not just for the selectors but for herself, and she did that in style: 110 balls, one six, and ten fours.
Elwiss was the perfect foil, just content to keep the strike ticking and dispatching the bad ball. She has proven to be an excellent signing for The Blaze and really strengthens a middle order that hasn’t always been reliable.
Though early in the season, this result should not derail Hampshire, but it shows why The Blaze are among the favourites for this competition. While they won’t always have Beaumont, this feels like a result that shows their intent in this format.
