Hampshire's rope trick leaves Sussex's t20 hopes dangling by thread

Hampshire today tampered with the boundaries of good taste in Twenty20 cricket to secure the final knockout place available in the South Group. Quite simply, they reduced the playing area at the Rose Bowl as far as they dared to gain a tactical advantage over the current champions, Sussex. It worked. Hampshire won a one-sided contest and now face a quarter‑final away against Warwickshire. Sussex also qualify, but after leading the group for most of the competition they have surrendered home advantage and will visit Nottinghamshire, while Essex today lost a heated encounter with Middlesex. All three teams hunting the final qualification spot – Hampshire, Surrey and Middlesex – won. Hampshire went through on a better run rate. After suffering at the hands of the Middlesex spinners on Friday night, Hampshire shrunk the straight boundaries and glued the surface of the wicket. Initially it was hard to say whether their plan would succeed. Sussex reduced their quota of spinners, dropping Will Beer for James Kirtley's medium pace, but Hampshire made a sticky start, slipping to 24 for two and 68 for three when it seemed the boundaries might not have been shrunk far enough. With a remarkable piece of clear thinking and gymnastic catching, Luke Wright dismissed the country's leading Twenty20 batsman, Jimmy Adams, taking the ball inside the boundary, throwing it up as he overbalanced over the rope and reclaiming it as he stepped back on to the field of play. However, that was when Michael Carberry, batting down the order, joined Neil McKenzie in a partnership that would be worth 65 from 41 balls, Carberry hitting two sixes in his 36. McKenzie played the holding role until a second piece of sharp fielding forced his acceleration. Matt Prior, not having one of his better days keeping wicket, scooted out to point to collect and, off balance, threw the wicket down with Carberry stranded. In the previous four overs 51 had been added and McKenzie, along with Sean Ervine, kept the foot down. The South African passed 50 off his 44th delivery, then took 17 from Wright's final over of the innings to finish with 67 from 49 balls while Ervine indulged in some big hitting of his own, taking 32 from 12 deliveries. An asking rate of close on 10 was always beyond Sussex. Hampshire are planning to add Shahid Afridi, who resigned as Pakistan's Test captain last week, to their squad in time for the quarter-finals. "I had to abandon my plans to play for Hampshire this season when Pakistan needed me for the Tests," said Afridi. "But I made my decision to step down and now Hampshire want me for the rest of the Twenty20." Middlesex beat Essex by 11 runs and Surrey wiped out the division's whipping boys, Gloucestershire , but neither side improved their run rate enough to unsettle Hampshire, even though Surrey won at Bristol with eight overs to spare. Gloucestershire's 147 looked pretty abject once Rory Hamilton-Brown and Steve Davies hit 112 in a 51-ball opening partnership. However, Surrey had needed to win in 9.2 overs if they were to progress. The run rate was also an issue at Chelmsford. The other was a confrontation between David Warner and Maurice Chambers which led to the umpire Martin Bodenham stepping in. Warner settled the Middlesex innings with 37 from 20 balls including a six and six fours – five of which came from successive deliveries from Chambers, leading to the exchange between the batsman and the bowler.