Vince admits Hampshire batsmen are ‘low on confidence’ after latest T20 Blast loss to Middlesex at Lord’s

They failed to chase 143 for victory, losing their last seven wickets for only 40 runs with only two batsmen reaching double figures.

Ton Alsop (43) and ex-Middlesex all-rounder James Fuller (34) provided the only real resistance after Vince (2) had departed quickly and Sam Northeast and Joe Weatherley were both out first ball.

Two days on from hitting only 11 boundaries in 20 overs in a loss to Sussex, Hampshire only managed six fours and a six at headquarters.

Their chances of finishing in the top two will be over if they lose to Kent at The Ageas Bowl on Monday (2pm).

Vince said after the Middlesex defeat: ‘We are a bit low on confidence with the bat and we just need a couple of us to make some bigger contributions.

‘We have been there or thereabouts in our last couple of games chasing, but we have not had anyone to really stand up to get us 50 or 60 not out to win us the game.

‘With the ball I thought we were good, and we were good in the field too, so I was happy at halfway chasing that score on this ground with the size of the boundaries.

‘We got ourselves in a position to get ourselves over the line, but it is tough for guys at the end to go in and score straight away.’

John Simpson proved Middlesex’s hero as they beat Hampshire by 19 runs to revive their own Blast hopes.

The wicket-keeper hit 30 from 19 balls to carry the hosts to 142-6, before taking three catches, a stumping and a run out as Hampshire collapsed to 123 all out.

Tom Helm (2-12) and Middlesex skipper Steven Finn (3-27) both came close to hat-tricks as Hampshire, not for the first time in the campaign, wilted chasing a small target.

Finn opted to bat after winning the toss and his faith was rewarded early on as Stevie Eskinazi and Max Holden started brightly.

Eskinazi, entering the game as the competition’s joint top scorer, twice struck Shaheen Shah Afridi into the Mound Stand and the Pakistan paceman also yielded five wides from a wild delivery fired down the leg-side.

However, once Holden skied a catch to backward point off the impressive Ian Holland (1-25) in the fourth over, the early momentum was lost.

Holland and Mason Crane (2-20) strangled the hosts to such a degree they managed just one boundary in the next 49 balls, a period in which Eskinazi (33) was caught and bowled by Crane from a ball which stopped in the pitch.

Jack Davies (23) ended that barren sequence, before surviving what seemed a certain run out when Crane dropped the return from the outfield with the youngster stranded.

But Dan Lincoln’s promotion to number three failed to produce fruit and only an enormous six from Simpson in the last over, which sailed beyond the Nursery End sightscreen, carried the hosts to 142-6.

Afridi managed his first Blast wicket, taking 1-31, but Hampshire would have been hoping for better figures than 1-98 off 11 overs in his first three appearances for the county.

Hampshire have had their batting woes in the competition this season and began badly when Vince edged Helm into the gloves of Simpson in the third over.

Helm, who was in England’s ODI bubble at the start of the season, snared Northeast - only 71 runs to his name in six Blast innings in 2020 - with his next ball, another thin nick to Simpson.

Weatherley survived the hat-trick, and a shout for a stumping, off a Murtagh wide at the start of the next over, only to overbalance to another wide the very next ball, Simpson whipping off the bails in lightning fashion.

At 12-3 the visitors were struggling, but helped by five penalty runs, when the ball hit Simpson’s glove when it was on the ground, Alsop and Fuller rebuilt.

Alsop raised the 50 by pulling a Nathan Sowter long hop to the mid-wicket fence and the 50 partnership came off 37 balls as runs flowed freely.

The stand raised 71 before Fuller hoisted Murtagh (2-20), playing only his second T20 since 2013, into the hands of Martin Andersson at long-on to depart for 34 at the end of the 13th over.

Alsop pulled Miguel Cummins for his side’s sole six, but a stunning caught and bowled by Sowter sent him packing with 51 still needed.

Simpson’s fourth dismissal came when Holland gloved one from Finn and 30 were needed from the last three overs.

Finn then had Lewis McManus and Chris Wood caught in the deep from successive balls and Crane was run out by fancy footwork from Simpson as Hampshire crumbled.

Victory was sealed when Afridi skied Cummins into Finn’s hands with seven balls left.

For many years, Hampshire were one of county cricket’s finest T20 teams.

They won the competition in 2010 and 2012 and reached Finals Day every year between 2010 and 2015.

Saturday’s loss at Lord’s, though, means they have only won eight of their 34 Blast games since the start of the 2018 season.