• Heroic Rossouw humbles Kent

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    Rilee Rossouw scored a masterful 125 for Hampshire in the Royal London One-Day Cup final at Lord’s.

    Sent in to bat by Kent, Rossouw and Tom Alsop got off to a flying start, adding 136 runs in the first 23 overs before Alsop was stumped for 72. James Vince joined Rossouw and the pair added 57 runs before Vince was caught for 23, after which Sam Northeast and Rossouw moved the score briskly along to 270 after 41 overs.

    Rossouw was caught by Alex Blake off Joe Denly for a brilliant 125 runs off 114 balls, including nine fours and three sixes, off the first ball of the 42nd over.

    The Kent bowlers all took their piece, with Denly picking up four wickets while Imran Qayyum took 2-60.

    Facing the highest-ever score in a final at Lord’s, Kent started well with Daniel Bell-Drummond and Heino Kuhn adding 55 runs in the opening 10 overs, before Kuhn was run out taking a risky single as the pressure mounted to up the run rate.

    Bell-Drummond batted beautifully to score 86 off 89 balls, which included 11 fours, backed up by 30 from Sean Dickson and a cracking 75 off 60 balls from Sam Billings, with eight fours and a six. The pressure to match Hampshire’s 6.6 runs an over target proved too tough in the end, with four Kent batsmen falling to run-outs.

    The Hampshire bowlers kept things tight for Kent, with all-bar Vince picking up a wicket. Cape Town-born Gareth Berg took 2-43, and Dale Steyn signed off for Hampshire with 1-56 before he heads for Sri Lanka and a date with his 422nd Test wicket.

    Rossouw picked up the Player of the Match award for his match-winning century, ironically the day before the Proteas squad departs for their tour of Sri Lanka. The last time Rossouw played for the Proteas was back in 2016 when he scored an incredible 122 off 118 balls against Australia to complete a 5-0 whitewash for the visitors.

    Scorecard

    Photo: Christopher Lee/Getty Images

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    Simon Lewis