Wood strikes late to resign Yorkshire to defeat

Wood, who had earlier taken three for 23 to restrict the visitors to 150, held his nerve to smash a four then a six with six needed from three balls.

It gave the Hawks, whose chase had been led by a Joe Weatherley 66, their sixth win in a row to stay top of the South Group. Meanwhile, Yorkshire only remain top of the North Group on net run rate.

Hampshire did two integral things perfectly after being stuck in. They bowled tightly – only one over went for more than 13 runs – and caught everything that came their way – seven in total.

Those two factors resulted in Yorkshire struggling to find impetus through their batting - the two teams meeting for just the second time, after Hampshire's victory in the 2012 final.

Only 42 runs came in the powerplay, as Wood and Currie both got the first of their three wickets.

Will Luxton and Sam Whiteman attempted to breath some life into the innings with a 45-run stand but the rate was always in Hampshire’s court.

That put pressure on Yorkshire to go big in the backend of their 20, but four wickets in 21 balls in the middle overs – with the latter two seeing Wood take two in three balls.

AJ Tye provided the counterargument by firing Sonny Baker over the boundary four balls in a row, but the newly minted England Test quick got the last laugh by yorking the Australian.

Toby Albert’s early dismissal didn’t slow Hampshire’s early blitz of hammering 58 in the first five overs.

But spin entered proceedings and turned things into the visitors’ direction, with Dan Moriarty bowling James Vince before dismissing Liam Dawson and Ben Mayes in successive balls.

Jafer Chohan backed that up when Weatherley – who had dropped 63 off 33 balls with effortless ball-striking – slog swept straight to deep square.

Despite the collapse, the Hawks still only needed to go at less than six runs an over, and Tristan Stubbs and Hilton Cartwright were the perfect duo to take the sting out of the situation.

They put 35 on before Cartwright was wonderfully caught behind by Jonny Bairstow before James Fuller was castled in the same Tye over.

In his following over, Tye found Scott Currie pinging to mid off and the game was fully alive again.

Tye was given eight runs to defend off the last over, and despite keeping the dangerous Stubbs off strike, Wood proved to be the hero to tower the ball over midwicket with a ball to spare.

Hampshire’s Chris Wood: “It was an amazing night. We probably should have done it easier than we did it but that was a typical Hampshire performance. It was great to get it over the line.

“First and foremost, it was about getting Stubbs on strike in the last over, but as the over played out we had to take some runs. We needed six from three and the field came in really close – and the plan was still to take the single – but I also wanted to get good contact. I managed to sneak one past mid on and then the field just kept coming in so I couldn’t find a single so just tried to win the game.

“It has been a running joke over the 16 seasons I’ve played that I had never walked off the field having won the game with the bat for Hampshire. It is nice to tick that off before my career comes to an end at some point. It is a nice little feeling.

“I wouldn’t say hitting sixes is my natural skill. I used to love batting but since transitioning to white-ball only I have found it incredibly hard. I could keep netting and not get any better so the less expectations on myself enables you to see the ball and hit the ball like this evening.

“Six wins in a row is very untypical Hampshire as we tend to have a poor start and find momentum at the end. We are riding the bit of a wave.”

Yorkshire fast bowler AJ Tye: “We probably didn't go as well with the bat as we would have liked, but we put a total on the board. Hampshire then got off to a flying start, and we were well behind the eight-ball. We just kept believing that if we could keep taking wickets, we'd be putting ourselves in the game. And we did.

“We had a shout at the end, and they’re the sort of games that can go either way. Fair play to them, they got over the line.

“We probably had no right at some times in that game to run them that close, but we've got a great belief in this group and we keep fighting. Hopefully, that holds us in good stead further on in the tournament.

“I just went out there, and they’d said that the pitch was a bit slow, it was holding. I was probably just setting up for the slower balls. Hampshire had bowled a lot of slower balls. If I could get a couple of them away, then ultimately they would go back to pace-on and hopefully that was a bit easier.

“I got a couple out of the screws. It doesn't always happen like that as a number eight. I'm happy that I could contribute and get a total on the board that we could defend.”