An audacious ramp shot in the final over of the match from Robbie Hemmings saw Lymington clinch a four wicket win in their T20 Cup semi-final clash with Basingstoke & North Hants at the Sports Ground yesterday. Replying to the visitors' 114 all out, Lymo were coasting home at 98-3 with three overs remaining, but what should have been a relatively straight forward winding up of the match suddenly became a nervy affair as three wickets fell in quick succession, including a double wicket maiden from Abijheet Suranath in the penultimate over. That left six runs required from the final over, and to the surprise - and relief - of the home faithful, this was achieved in just one hit by Hemmings who ramped the first ball over the keeper - and the boundary line - to see Lymo home with five balls to spare. Hemmings ended on 44 not out, while Ronnie Patel (24 from 12 balls) and Josh Royan (19) also made significant contributions.

Earlier in the afternoon Lymington's bowlers had made a good job of dismissing their north Hampshire opponents for just 114 after a combination of positive batting and some sloppy fielding had initially seen Basingstoke reach 44 for no wicket. Ed Withington finally broke the deadlock by bowling Deadman for 20, and further wickets soon fell, including a fantastic return catch by Jude Tollerfield. George Metzger held the innings together but once he had been dismissed by Thor Howell for 40 the innings rapidly disintegrated and the last three wickets gleaned just two runs. Every Lymo bowler took at least one wicket with skipper Josh Royan (3-23) recording the best figures.

Despite the tense finish it was a good performance overall from a Lymington side missing key players in Gareth Berg, Mo Abbas and Jovan Dhariwal. Basingstoke's spinners bowled extremely well and made Lymington work hard for every run. Lymington now face league champions St Cross in the final in early September with a date and venue yet to be confirmed. It will be Lymington's first appearance in a T20 final since 2014.