Hampshire suffer record-breaking T20 Blast loss
Sam Curran produced an outstanding performance with bat and ball as Surrey thrashed Hampshire by 72 runs to move to the top of the South Group and maintain their 100 per cent record in this year’s Vitality Blast.
The 23-year-old made 69 off 38 balls as Surrey piled up 228-4 - their second-highest total in T20 history - before taking a career-best 5-30 including three wickets in an over as Hampshire were dismissed for 156 last night.
A Kia Oval crowd of 15,000 was treated to some spectacular hitting, first by Curran and Will Jacks, who hammered 131 from 73 balls for the second wicket, and then by Sunil Narine, who added 52 from 23 deliveries.
It was Surrey’s highest total at the Oval for seven years andtoomuchforaHampshire side hampered by the absence of their best batsman James Vince through illness. James Fuller top-scored with 43 in their reply but they remain winless after four games.
Surrey’s total was the highest Hampshire have ever conceded in T20 cricket, beating the 220-4 Somerset made at Taunton 12 years ago. And their 72-run loss was their fifth highest in the format.
Yet it started well for them. After electing to bowl first they made a breakthrough in the first over when stand-in skipper Liam Dawson spun one through Jason Roy’s defences.
But between them Jacks and Curran hit ten sixes and nine fours in a partnership that was Surrey’s third-highest in T20 and eclipsed their previous best against Hampshire when Jacks and Laurie Evans put on 118 at The Ageas Bowl two years ago.