Ben Brown bosses Northants with superb unbeaten hundred
Ben Brown celebrated his century of List A appearances with an exceptional hundred as Hampshire got their Metro Bank One-Day Cup campaign off to a winning start against Northamptonshire Steelbacks.Wicketkeeper Brown had only scored one previous white-ball century – for Sussex in 2021 – in his first 99 games but picked up a career-best 139 not out.Hampshire had been left on 25 for three after Jack White’s opening spell but Brown, with help from Felix Organ’s 59, got the hosts to 285.Eddie Jack and Tom Prest both picked up their professional best figures of four for 29 and three for 41 as the Steelbacks only reached 214 to lose by 71 runsLewis McManus’ decision to bowl first immediately paid dividends with an unplayable new-ball spell from Jack White. He nibbled the fresh white ball around to dump the hosts to 25 for three.He had already made Fletcha Middleton play and miss three times before thumping into the opener’s leg stump with his fifth ball.Nick Gubbins returned a caught-and-bowled with a leading edge and Prest was pouched at second slip, with White ending his six-over spell with three for six.But in sliding to take the Gubbins catch, White damaged his knee which saw him no return.Without him, Brown rebuilt the innings in style. First in a 51-run stand with Toby Albert, but after Albert had skied to mid on and Joe Eckland had been caught at extra cover, more substantially with Organ.Brown already stashed fifty in 62 balls but Organ’s arrival heralded a freer flow that set the tone for the second half of the innings.Brown doesn’t have the stellarest of white-ball records but showed off the very best of his jabby shot-making square of the wicket.His third century of the season came in exactly 100 balls with a controlled hook shot to the boundary which typified his timing.Organ sailed to a 51-ball 59 in a flash to join Brown for 188 runs before he picked out deep midwicket – giving Zaib the third of his three for 60 – with Jack and Kyle Abbott hit sixes and fell at the death.Brown ended up with 139 not out and Hampshire 285 – which had seemed improbable after White’s early burst.Prithvi Shaw and Emilio Gay got the Steelbacks off to a sensational start with 56 put on inside nine overs but their innings was full of good starts which weren’t capitalised on.Jack’s introduction – with Mohammad Abbas forced off after just two overs – was the main catalyst. The teenager dragged Shaw into a drive straight to cover with his second ball, in an otherwise miserly spell.Gay and Ricardo Vasconcelos put on 42 but a swipe off Brad Wheal saw the end of the former and slid Northamptonshire towards a hole.Vasconcelos swept into the deep, Rob Keogh was lbw on the reverse and George Bartlett was caught behind as three wickets fell for 15 runs.McManus gave Jack his second when he spun to deep square leg before Prest added his third when Saif Zaib missed his sweep to fall leg before and Michael Finan holed out on the leg side.Gus Miller scrapped hard for 47, but with the run-rate surging above 10s he skied Jack straight up, before the England under-19 quick completed Hampshire’s victory by clearing up White.