Still comfortably Lumb – recalling Hampshire’s highest ever T20 individual innings
In the seventh season of the 20-over format, the opening batsman compiled an unbeaten 124 against Essex Eagles at The Ageas Bowl.
It was the 26th century recorded in the English T20 tournament - Australian Ian Harvey, later to play for Hampshire having scored three of them, including the very first one in 2003.
Advertisement
Hide AdAdvertisement
Hide AdAt the time Lumb’s century was the third highest - beaten only by Graham Napier (152, Essex v Sussex, 2008) and Cameron White (141 not out, Somerset v Worcestershire, 2006).
Twelve years on, and Lumb is down to 14th in the all-time list of highest individual innings. As T20 has grown around the world into the money-making machine it is today, so have the scores.
Currently, Yorkshire’s Adam Lyth holds the record for the highest T20 innings in the English county competition - 161 not out against Northants four years ago.
Lumb, though, remains comfortably out in front in the Hampshire record books.
Advertisement
Hide AdAdvertisement
Hide AdOnly four players have subsequently hit a T20 century for the county - Jimmy Adams (twice), James Vince, Shahid Afridi and Michael Carberry.
Vince, Afridi and Carberry saved theirs for the big occasion - all reaching three figures in quarter-final victories to help Hampshire to Finals Day at Edgbaston.
Here, The News looks back at Hampshire’s top 10 innings in this country.
Michael Lumb
124 not out, v Essex, Ageas Bowl, 2009
The former Yorkshire batsman reached his century in 56 balls with 11 fours and four sixes.
Advertisement
Hide AdAdvertisement
Hide AdHe was to share a second wicket stand of 170 in 15.2 overs with Michael Carberry (62) as Hampshire posted 219-2.
That remains the highest stand for Hampshire for any wicket in T20 history.
In reply, Essex crumbled to 15-3 and were eventually dismissed for 144. Among the losing side was wicket-keeper Adam Wheater, who is expected to line-up against Hampshire again tomorrow night when the Hawks visit Chelmsford in their second 2021 Vitality Blast fixture.
James Vince
107 not out, v Worcestershire, New Road, 2015
The skipper led from the front, reaching what remains his only T20 hundred off 60 balls with 13 fours and three sixes.
Advertisement
Hide AdAdvertisement
Hide AdThat helped Hampshire post 196-4 and after rain arrived with the hosts 58-2 in reply Vince’s side were declared 17-run winners under the Duckworth/Lewis Method.
Earlier in the season, Vince had been left stranded on 99 not out against Kent and also made an unbeaten 90 against Sussex. He was to end the 2015 season with a new tournament record of 710 runs, a record he still holds.
The previous year, Vince had made an unbeaten 93 against Nottinghamshire.
Jimmy Adams
101 not out, v Surrey, Ageas Bowl, 2010
Entering the game with a highest T20 score of 68, the opener reached three figures in 64 balls with seven fours and four sixes.
Advertisement
Hide AdAdvertisement
Hide AdAdams’ century was scored against a Surrey attack including his former Hants colleague Chris Tremlett, South African Andre Nel and Australian Andrew Symonds.
After Hampshire had posted 201-2, Surrey replied with 191-9.
Shahid Afridi
101, v Derbyshire, Derby, 2017
The Pakistan international all-rounder struck the most explosive century in Hampshire’s T20 history in a quarter-final romp in the east Midlands.
Opening the batting, Afridi raced to his first-ever T20 ton in just 42 balls with 10 fours and seven sixes.
Advertisement
Hide AdAdvertisement
Hide AdWith James Vince adding 55, Hampshire totalled 249-9 - easily the county’s highest score in the shortest form of the game and the sixth highest between games involving English teams.
Shell-shocked Derbyshire, who were appearing in their first-ever quarter-final, were bowled out for 148 as Hampshire reached Finals Day for the seventh time.
Michael Carberry
100 not out, v Lancashire, Ageas Bowl, 2013
Carberry’s century came in one of Hampshire’s greatest ever T20 matches.
After being put in, the opener reached three figures off the last ball of the innings as Hampshire posted 202-3 in a quarter-final tie.
Advertisement
Hide AdAdvertisement
Hide AdCarberry’s century occupied 66 balls and contained 11 fours and three sixes.
In reply, Lancashire looked beaten when they slumped to 133-4 off the first ball of the 15th over.
But in the end Hampshire won by just a single run after Steven Croft (43 not out off 29 balls) and Gareth Cross (32 not out off 17) had threatened a remarkable recovery act.
Jimmy Adams
100 not out, v Glamorgan, Ageas Bowl, 2010
Adams compiled his second T20 century in a matter of weeks off 61 balls with 16 boundaries.
After posting 199-5, the hosts won by 54 runs.
Advertisement
Hide AdAdvertisement
Hide AdHampshire went on to win the T20 silverware for the first time that year, beating Somerset in a dramatic final at The Ageas Bowl. Adams was the tournament’s leading run scorer with a new record aggregate of 668 runs at 39.29.
James Vince
99 not out, v Kent, Canterbury, 2015
Vince was agonisingly close to a century as Hampshire claimed a dramatic success.
Asked to chase 184 at a required rate of 10.22 in a game reduced to 18 overs per side by an early evening thunderstorm, Vince struck 99 from 57 balls to see the visitors home with one delivery to spare.
Hampshire won when Vince collected his eighth boundary, after previously hitting five sixes as well.
Shane Watson
97, v Kent, Ageas Bowl, 2004
Advertisement
Hide AdAdvertisement
Hide AdThe Australian all-rounder had been close to scoring Hampshire’s first-ever T20 century in only the second season of the T20 Cup in 2004.
In only the fifth T20 innings of his career, Watson struck an unbeaten 97 off 68 balls, with nine fours and three sixes, as Hampshire posted 177-3 - Kent falling way short in reply on 113-9.
Watson went on to enjoy a stellar T20 career, and remains the 10th highest run scorer of all time with 8,872 from 343 matches.
Though he missed out against Kent, he was to score six T20 centuries - though he would have to wait until 2013 for his first one.
Watson’s highest T20 innings was 124 not out for Australia against India in January 2016.