HAMPSHIRE bowler Nathan Ellis admitted Hawks aces “are all doing the maths” to try and work out their quarter-final opponents in the T20 Blast.

The Australian helped scalp the Gloucestershire order with one for 14 in his four overs, as the away side fell short of Hampshire’s 140 target at the Ageas Bowl.

Liam Dawson took two for 16 with Gloucestershire all out for 125 in the final over of the match. James Fuller had belted 45 from just 24 balls to drag Hampshire to the above-par target in the first innings.

The result means Hampshire have a quarter-final berth, despite four successive losses in the opening matches of the Blast campaign.

"We are all doing the maths up there trying to work out where we are going and might be going. Time will tell,” Ellis said, speaking after the match.

“T20 is such a fickle game after four games we thought the world was ending and you don't know when the first one is coming. But now we are really stoked with how it has turned around and hopefully now we can hang onto the momentum going into the knockouts.”

The T20 Blast quarter-finals take place between Wednesday, July 6 and Saturday, July 9, with Finals Day on Saturday July 16.

Reflecting on the performance, Ellis added: “It was a bit of a funny wicket. We have played a few games on it earlier in the tournament but looking at it we had no idea what was a good score.

"James Fuller's innings was the match-winning performance to get us to scrap to 140 and we managed to hold on after taking wickets.

"One of our strengths and something we strive for is to get us into a position to use our death bowling with me, Woody and Whealy and that got us over the line tonight.

"I'm really happy for Daws. He has bowled well all tournament and tonight there was a little bit of spin in the wicket. We got a few early wickets and good matchups for him and he was ready to go. It was something special from him tonight.”

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