ESSEX beat Hampshire by three runs under the Duckworth/Lewis method on Friday night in the return leg of the Twenty20 Floodlit Challenge but the margin of victory was not sufficient for the home side to retain the trophy.

Their defeat on Wednesday night at the Rose Bowl, when Hampshire won with 7-wickets and nine deliveries to spare, cost them the silverware as the destiny of the trophy was resolved on net run rate. That was the first time that Essex had lost a match in three years of the competition but it was to prove a defining defeat.

That a match took place at all on Friday night was a tribute to the herculean efforts of groundsman Stuart Kerrison and his team who overcame periods of heavy rain for much of the day to prepare the ground for a prompt start for the crowd of approximately 2,800. Essex won the toss and made a terrible start. Mark Pettini went for 5, Jason Gallian 6 and Alastair Cook – released by the ECB for this match and Sunday’s Pro40 match with Warwickshire- faced five balls before he was pinned in the crease by Benny Howell for a duck. Grant Flower came - and went - for a single to leave the home side 16-4 inside six overs but with another 2 runs added, a 23-minute rain hold-up reduced the match to 17 per side.

On the resumption, Ravi Bopara and James Foster staged a revival of their side’s fortunes posting 55 in 7 overs before the Essex wicket-keeper having scored 28 was superbly caught & bowled by left-arm spinner Liam Dawson.

Graham Napier struck a boundary but was then caught at long-on for 6 attempting to clear the ropes leaving the home side 77-6 and Varun Chopra to support the effective Bopara who struck two sixes in one over from David Balcombe as 32 were added inside 3 overs.

Chopra only scored 2 of those runs facing four deliveries in the partnership as he left the strike to his partner before he was bowled in the penultimate over that had yielded 15 runs.

Just 5 runs were scored from the final over as Bopara was dropped twice off Dawson allowing the batsman to finish unbeaten on 52 having faced 40 balls that contained two sixes and four other boundaries.

Because of the earlier rain stoppage, the Duckworth/Lewis target for Hampshire was calculated as 113 to win but they lost both openers within three overs as David Masters broke through the defences of Jimmy Adams and then Napier knocked back the off stump of Michael Brown to leave the visitors on 19-2.

Maldon-born John Crawley and Chris Benham however gave Hampshire the initiative with a 67-runs partnership in 11 overs but then Bopara marked his influence on proceedings for the second time in the match – this time with the ball.

The all-rounder grabbed two wickets in one over having Benham caught by Cook at mid-wicket for 23 and four balls later, and without addition, he trapped Dawson leg before for a duck to leave Hampshire 86-4 wickets.

Twenty-six runs were required from the last three overs and although James Middlebrook conceded 11 runs, he did remove Crawley for 41 when the batsman drove to Napier at long-on. Another 10 runs were gathered from the penultimate over sent down by Bopara leaving five runs to win with five wickets remaining as Chris Wright prepared to bowl the final over of the match.

The odds favoured the batting side but it was the former Middlesex player who won the day. After two “dot” balls, he had Greg lamb caught by Pettini at mid-off, his next delivery was another “dot” before Howells took a single to leave Tom Burrows requiring a boundary from the final ball to secure victory.

However, Wright had the last word rearranging the batsman’s stumps as Hampshire closed on 109-7 and the bowler admirable figures of 2-11 from 3 overs. Bopara returned 2-27, Napier 1-12, Middlebrook 1-23 and Masters 1-26.