AFter losing that last-ball thriller at Lord's, Jim Troughton and Warwickshire can at least look back on the season with huge fondness. They won the one that mattered, the County Championship, although a league and cup double sounds even more impressive. Meanwhile, Hampshire have shown how to win cup finals yet again, and twice within three weeks, too.
On the face of it, they are the stand-out side in short-form cricket, yet they weren't the most impressive in either CB40 or T20 group stages. However, they deserved to triumph at the Cardiff Finals Day, when Dmitri Mascarenhas, Neil McKenzie, Sean Ervine and Chris Wood led the troops to victories over Somerset and Yorkshire.
In the 40-over competition, they smashed highly-fancied Sussex in the semis but it was always going to be a tight match today, especially as Jimmy Adams had neither Mascarenhas or spinner Danny Briggs to call upon with the ball. On paper, Hampshire definitely had a squad to return to Division One of the Championship, but the btasmen scored too few runs and the bowling was too inconsistent. In knockout cricket, consistency is less important; you just need a few match-winners. And Hampshire have so many who could put in a good performance, from Carberry and Vince to Katich and McKenzie, Dawson and Briggs. The former pair both finished amongst the most prolific batsmen in the CB40 season, while the bowling spoils were more evenly shared.
Sean Ervine admitted that the controversial tied final with Somerset in 2010, the one Marcus Trescothick confesses still haunts him (and me!), was even tighter but the pressure imposed by Jimmy Adams and Kabir Ali proved too much for Neil Carter to get the touch needed to win for Warwickshire. Two trophies, but they really need to escape Division Two in 2013 to prove they're not just a useful one-day outfit. Of ourse, the cash from a successful Champions League T20 run would come in very handy, and if Hampshire could put one over the favoured IPL franchises it would be a big boost to the whole county game.
