Is this a new British record? Hampshire cricket team blast almost 300 in a T20 Southern Premier League fixture

Fawley batters Trishawn Francis (130) and Gurpreet Basra (117) produced a blizzard of boundaries as Fawley rattled up an astonishing 294-5 in just 20 overs at Liphook & Ripsley yesterday.

For context, the world record - as stated on the cricketarchive.com website - is Afghanistan’s 275-3 against Ireland in February 2019.

The highest team total recorded by an English county is Yorkshire’s 260-4 against Northants at Headingley five years ago.

It is unknown whether Fawley’s total is a new record - English, British or worldwide - in terms of a grassroots T20 fixture.

Francis, who hails from the Caribbean island of St Nevis, blasted 15 sixes and four fours at Ripsley Park.

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Basra, meanwhile, smacked nine sixes and nine fours.

Strangely, neither batter had been in any sort of form in Fawley’s SPL Division 3 fixtures this season.

Francis’ run of scores in league action had been 7,0,0,9,9 and 2 - and that after two pre-season friendly hundreds! As for Basra, he had only scored 11 runs in total in his two SPL matches in 2022.

The most economical of Liphook’s bowlers was opener Andy Barnes, who took 1-38 off his four overs. Elsewhere, Oscar Amis conceded 49 runs off his three overs, Daniel Harvey claimed 2-58 off 18 balls, Sean Burton returned 0-60 off his four overs and Rob Nicklin’s sole over cost him 24 runs.

In reply, shellshocked Liphook - who play two tiers higher in the SPL than Fawley - were restricted to 121-9 to lose by a mammoth 173-run margin. Bailey Parrett took 2-6 from his four overs, including a maiden.