Twenty years ago, on the last Monday in July, baseballs biggest superstar and his heir apparent came to a rain-soaked field 100 miles north of Milwaukee. Nearly 6,000 people crammed into Fox Cities Stadium to get a glimpse of them -- backward-cap-wearing Ken Griffey Jr. and skinny, fresh-faced Alex Rodriguez -- in an exhibition game for the Seattle Mariners.It was as hot a ticket as there ever was in the decadeslong history of minor league baseball in Appleton, Wisconsin.And then, David Ortiz says, I stole the show.Ortiz wasnt Big Papi then. Heck, he wasnt even David Ortiz. As a 20-year-old first baseman in his first full season of pro ball after the Mariners had signed him four years earlier out of his native Dominican Republic, he went by David Arias, his mothers maiden name.But on this night, with Junior and A-Rod in town, Ortiz and his teammates with the Class A Wisconsin Timber Rattlers might as well have been anonymous.At least until Ortiz lifted his bat.This is the little-known story of the seminal moment in the career of a slugger who was barely a glint in the Mariners eyes but went on to become one of the greatest hitters of his generation.The buildupIt seems almost inconceivable now, given the risk of injury and the overall unwillingness of most big leaguers to give up a precious day off. Back then, though, two years after a players strike wiped out the World Series, in-season barnstorming trips to minor league affiliates werent uncommon.The Mariners, fresh off an appearance in the American League Championship Series in 1995 and contending again in 96, were set to play a doubleheader July 30 in Milwaukee. After wrapping up a homestand on July 28, they traveled to Appleton, where the Timber Rattlers had demonstrated their commitment to the Mariners by building a new ballpark two years earlier.DAN WILSON, MARINERS CATCHER: When youre playing a big league schedule -- and its even a little bit different out in Seattle because youre traveling so much -- your off days are pretty cherished. Its somewhat of a sacrifice for big league guys to go and do something like that. On the other hand, to be able to take part in the minor league program of your organization, to be part of their development, to give young guys a chance to see what theyre shooting for also makes you feel good in a way, too. For me, personally, it was kind of a neat deal.ALEX RODRIGUEZ: It was a lot of fun, especially for me. Two years before, thats where I started my career -- in Appleton. The fans were great. They just put that new stadium in. Thats why we came in. I think it was the Mariners way of showing their appreciation.MIKE BIRLING, TIMBER RATTLERS GENERAL MANAGER: [The Mariners] felt that we did a lot for them by getting a new stadium built. We had no public funding to build that stadium. We were doing anything we could to get it done, and I think that was just a reward for that partnership. The people had become Mariner fans in that small, little area just because we were with them for a while. You saw all these great guys come through. So, [the Mariners coming] was definitely the talk of the area, without a doubt. It just so happened the schedule was perfect.The weather, on the other hand ...BIRLING: Everything was sold out, everything was great, and all of a sudden that afternoon it started pouring pretty hard. After it stopped, we thought we were going to play the game. Lou Piniella was the [Mariners] manager at the time. Him and I were walking through the outfield and he says, Well go ahead and do it, but well play a seven-inning game instead of a nine-inning game because it was already delayed and they needed to go after the game. Were literally getting ready to take the tarp off and another downpour came. Even though it was pretty much a new ballpark, the outfield was just terrible. It never drained at all. From my perspective, all you can think of is just having to refund all these people. And as a Single-A minor league team, we were counting on that game for a long time.GARY HORCHER, TV REPORTER FOR WBAY, ABC AFFILIATE IN APPLETON: Id never been that close to Lou Piniella before, but man, he went on a little bit of a tirade. Every other word was, I am not f---ing putting my f---ing players on that f---ing field. Im in a pennant race. He turned the F-bombs on. That was kind of stunning to me.JOHN McLAREN, MARINERS THIRD-BASE COACH: The word was we werent going to be able to play but were going to try to give the fans something to grasp onto. Someone came up with the idea of doing a home run derby, so we went looking for hitters. Griffey and A-Rod, them guys didnt want to hit. Danny Wilson hit. Alex had played there and was extremely popular, so he definitely was going to take a few swings. But Dan Wilson was the main guy that was hitting the home runs on our side.WILSON: I dont remember how the whole selection process went. I think we all felt like wed come that far and it would be a shame not to do something, so there was a willingness on some guys part to do a home run derby. To be honest, I dont know how I got in that thing. I was like, well, Ive never done a home run derby, so I thought it might be kind of fun. And it turned out to actually be pretty fun. It was a neat deal.MIKE GOFF, TIMBER RATTLERS MANAGER: Honestly, I dont think they were happy about having to be there, period. There were a lot of great guys over there, dont get me wrong. [Jay] Buhner, Griffey, theyre great guys. But half of them wanted to get the hell out of there. They didnt want to do it in the first place, like most major league teams dont like going into affiliate cities and doing that.The derbyRodriguez, who hit 14 homers in 248 at-bats in Appletons old ballpark in 1994, volunteered to participate. And by popular demand, Griffey was talked into competing, too. The Timber Rattlers countered with outfielder Luis Tinoco, hitting coach Joaquin Contreras and Ortiz, who was in the midst of a breakout season in which he batted .322 with 18 homers, 93 RBIs and a .901 OPS.DAVID ORTIZ: The first team that I signed with was Seattle, and Ken Griffey was everybodys favorite, especially a left-handed hitter like me. Now hes there in Appleton to have a home run derby. Its Griffey and A-Rod, and Im going to be a part of it. Everybody was excited.GOFF: Davey was a guy that kind of came out of nowhere. This kid was in rookie ball the year before, and they werent going to let me take him to the Midwest League. The only reason he got on my club was because I didnt have a first baseman, I didnt have left-handed hitting [first baseman]. I had to fight for him to just make that team that year, and he ends up within a couple of percentage points of winning the Triple Crown. You could see it; what this kid had was special. From the first day I saw him, watching how he handled situations, to his infectious personality where people just loved to be around him. The only thing I tried to do was hold the guy accountable and not let him screw up the opportunity that was going to be presented to him because he was so talented. I was hard on him. I was harder on him than anybody else on that ballclub.WILSON: We heard about him, that he was a good player and had some pop. But he was pretty young at the time. In some ways, I think we kind of got spoiled with guys like A-Rod and Junior and Jay and Edgar [Martinez]. These guys were some of the elite players in the game. Youre spoiled in the sense that you saw great power every day. But I think we were all pretty amazed at his ability at that point and his swing. To see that kind of power at the Single-A level, it stood out.McLAREN: I remember [Ortiz] was a tall, lanky kid. He looked like a young Willie McCovey. He was tall and lean and agile, long arms, and his wingspan was just enough. He had this huge smile and just had fun. And then he started hitting. Well, lets just say he opened some peoples eyes.Fox Cities Stadium was built for $5.5 million in 1994-95. The dimensions are fairly straightforward: 325 feet down each foul line, 400 feet to center field. Interstate 41 runs alongside the ballpark on the first-base side, and Highway 15 runs behind the outfield.According to a recap in the July 30, 1996, edition of the Appleton Post-Crescent, Ortiz went deep seven times in the first round of the derby. Griffey and Rodriguez hit eight homers -- combined. Wilson outhomered Ortiz, 3-0, in the final round, according to The Post-Crescent. But there wasnt any doubt about which slugger was the most impressive.ORTIZ: I was hitting balls onto the highway, bro. Like, it was crazy. I could see they were impressed with what I was doing, and they were the guys in the big leagues. I was just playing A-ball. It was fun. Ill never forget that.GOFF: Davey always loved the stage. He always loved to put on a show and prove people wrong. I was throwing the home run derby for my guys, and I remember throwing to him. He had a couple sweet spots that I would try to throw to. I knew if I could get it to that point, he was going to make the ball disappear like he always did.HORCHER: Ken Griffey Jr. was standing by A-Rod when Ortiz started hitting his first couple shots. It was a different noise. Some guys, it sounds like a thunderclap, and other guys it doesnt generate the same sound. This was like a hammer clattering against something really percussive. I remember everybody kind of winced. We looked over for Griffeys reaction, and I remember Griffey kind of looking up and smiling. But A-Rod was going, Oh my god! I remember after one of Ortizs shots, A-Rod was like, Look at that guy! I aint got a chance.RODRIGUEZ: I think we were all wondering why he wasnt coming back with us to the Kingdome. We wanted to take him on the plane with us.HORCHER: Dan Wilson ended up winning, but he was hitting them just adequately enough to get over the fence. A-Rod hit one over the scoreboard, which was pretty breathtaking. But Ortiz, they were just so high. I remember, it was like he had that natural uppercut, and they were like golf shots. A lot of oooohs and ahhhhs from the fans. He hit one, I remember, and he didnt even look at it. It was almost like, drop the mic. His English wasnt that good then, but that body language smack talk showed he was very confident in his ability.GOFF: I cant remember how many he hit, but I know he hit a bunch. He wasnt just hitting them to right field. He was hitting them all over the ballpark, and it was a good-sized yard. It wasnt a small yard. To hear that Alex said, We should take him back to the Kingdome, I think thats bulls--- to be honest. I think some of [the Mariners] were embarrassed by what Davey did to them in that competition -- and I loved every single minute of it.McLAREN: Buhner could hit them as long as anybody. I dont remember if it was Buhner or Griffey because they were all standing there together, but one of them said, Who is this kid? I mean, he was hitting huge bombs. It was raining and stuff. It was just a dull day, and everybody didnt care about playing any game. But [Ortiz] got their attention. He kind of made the moment there. Some people on the major league staff and the players, theyll have that memory of when was the first time they saw David Arias or David Ortiz. That would be the moment.WILSON: David had power that was amazing in and of itself. But the competitive side of it, too, to see him sort of rise to that challenge and step up, that kind of opened your eyes about what kind of player this kid could be.RODRIGUEZ: I go back 20 years with David, and whether it was Appleton, Wisconsin, or Escogido with the Dominican Republic, or obviously with the Red Sox, hes had a flair for the dramatic. Big Papi put on a show. He always does.The aftermathWhat could have been a nightmare for the Timber Rattlers, a washout of their highly anticipated exhibition against the Mariners, turned into an event that left Appleton buzzing for weeks. A month later, on Aug. 29, Seattle acquired third baseman Dave Hollins from the Minnesota Twins for a player to be named. And on Sept. 13, after the Timber Rattlers lost to West Michigan in the Midwest League finals, Ortiz was sent to Minnesota to complete the deal.GOFF: We come off the field after losing the last game and my phone is ringing. I looked at my pitching coach, Pat Rice, and I think we both had the same bad gut feeling. I pick the phone up, and Im not going to mention who was on the other end, but the phone call was, Dont let Arias leave the ballpark. Im like, Dont tell me he was the player to be named later, and they said he was. And I lost it. I had to call Davey in, and it was like telling my son that he got traded. We sat there that night, and Im not going to lie, we had several beverages until about 1 or 2 oclock in the morning. It was one of the worst trades ever made.ORTIZ: It was tough, man. Ken Griffey Jr. was everybodys favorite. Im pretty sure a lot of kids at the time wanted to hit like him. But I always dreamed of playing in the big leagues with Ken Griffey Jr. It never happened.McLAREN: I remember Lou Piniella commenting later on, something like, John, how did we let this guy get away? But we had no idea. He really wasnt on our radar screen. I know the minor league people liked him and stuff, but he was in A-ball, and, back then, they didnt have the minor league rankings and the big hype like they have today. He wasnt somebody that we talked about in our plans going forward because that was low- A ball. Obviously we didnt know what we had or we wouldnt have made that deal. But at the time we needed a third baseman, and Hollins was a proven veteran player.WILSON: It was something a few of us talked about. Because when you hear about the trade, youre like, Oh, thats the kid in Single-A who was putting them on the highway in that home run derby. You were definitely able to put a face to a name or an ability to a name.Ortiz jumped three levels in the Twins farm system in 1997 and made his big league debut that September. He hit 20 homers for the Twins in 2002, but it wasnt until he signed with the Red Sox that he emerged as one of the most feared sluggers in the league, eventually joining Griffey and A-Rod in the 500-homer club.Save for those who were in Fox Cities Stadium on July 29, 1996, few people were aware the derby even happened. In 2013, Horcher, who had moved to Seattle to work for KIRO-TV, dug up footage from that night in Appleton and reported a story on the stations website, bringing some attention to the long-lost event.McLAREN: Ive been telling this story for years and years and years, but this was an event that never really was recorded. I actually just told the home run story last week to [Philadelphia Phillies bench coach] Larry Bowa. We were talking about Dave Hollins, and I said, The first time I saw Big David, he was David Arias and he was hitting some kind of bombs in Appleton, Wisconsin. And Bowa says, He was traded for Dave Hollins? Are you sure?BIRLING: Ive worked in the minor leagues a long time, and you know how careful everybody is. To think these guys would have come out in really miserable conditions and still go out and do a home run derby, that just doesnt happen. It was a special moment for that area. It was a special moment for all of us that were there, something well never forget.GOFF: It was a great day, man. For fans that were looking to see a game, they got something so much better with a home run derby. You look back on the guys that participated in that and where theyre going to end up when its all said and done, in Cooperstown, that doesnt happen very often.RODRIGUEZ: Everybody loves David. Hes a great ambassador for our game, and hes been that guy from Appleton, Wisconsin. Hes always had that special it factor. His smile is contagious. And it was the same way back then.ORTIZ: Ken Griffey was the best player in the game, and Alex, everybody knew how special he was. 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With one win from seven matches in 2016, Hampshires hopes of reaching a seventh successive finals day were in tatters. Their season was over before it had begun; an era had ended.Between 2010 and 2015, Hampshire emerged as one of T20s great sides. For six seasons, in the worlds longest and largest T20 tournament - with 18 teams and often over 100 matches across a five-month season - Hampshire lifted the trophy twice and reached the semi-finals every year. Within this period their win-loss ratio of 2.18 was comfortably the best in England and over such a span (91 matches) has only been surpassed by one team anywhere: Nottinghamshire, who never sealed their dominance with a trophy.Hampshires success was characterised by a consistent but familiar strategy. Arriving before mega-hitters and hybrid allrounders ushered in an evolutionary leap, Hampshires approach represented the vertex of a specialised strand of tactics adapted, in essence, from 1990s ODI cricket. This is their story.Do teams start winning because they keep picking the same players or do they pick the same players because they keep winning? For us it was the former, Hampshires director of cricket Giles White recalls of their winning side from 2010. We asked ourselves: what have we got? How are we best going to play with what weve got? And we stuck to it.What they had were players who spanned formats. As a county club, you dont have the budget to have white- and red-ball players. You are looking for players that play all formats. In that era we were lucky to have players who did.What they also had was a potent blend of youth and experience. That season Hampshires squad contained eight players over 30, six between 27 and 29, and five 20 or younger. This range allowed a method to embed itself and pass on from one side to the next. Over six seasons the method was only reinforced and improved, not changed.Despite a slow start in 2010, they only made 12 changes to their team across 19 matches, the majority enforced by injury, and just three in their last eight games: so settled was the side, they chose not to select Kevin Pietersen for finals day despite his availability.Their success was built on a core of players, supported by specialists, overseas signings and fringe squad players. Across the six seasons a spine of seven players appeared in more than half the matches. Three were top-order batsmen: Jimmy Adams (85 matches), James Vince (86) and Michael Carberry (59). Two were middle-order batsmen: Sean Ervine (81) and Neil McKenzie (55). One, Chris Wood (78), was a seam bowler, and one, Danny Briggs (88), a spinner.Around them were critical contributors: Michael Lumb (19 matches), Owais Shah (22), Dimitri Mascarenhas (40), Shahid Afridi (10), Abdul Razzaq (10), Dan Christian (12), Liam Dawson (41), Glenn Maxwell (20), Will Smith (32), Nic Pothas (26), Michael Bates (29), Adam Wheater (38), Dominic Cork (39), Imran Tahir (16), Yasir Arafat (16), Matt Coles (15).We built a pattern of play, explains White. If we won the toss we were more likely to do X unless conditions told us we must do Y. We had a set structure of how we played and we didnt swap around too much, didnt mess around with orders too much.There was role clarity throughout the team. We knew what we were doing and we became very good at it.Powerplayers Jimmy Adams is not your normal T20 opener. Having made his first-class debut in 2002 alongside Robin Smith, a year before the inaugural Twenty20 Cup, Adams was a red-ball player first and white-ball second.I was very wary of being the bloke that was 15 not out off 20 balls after the first six, recalls Adams. I was more scared of letting the team down and not doing the right thing than I was of getting out.The nice thing about T20 is, almost all the time the right thing to do for the team is to go for the positive option and to take a gamble. I was probably the most non-gambling person in our changing room but I had to think: what does the team need from me at this moment?In 2010, David Warner was opening for Middlesex and Brendon McCullum for Sussex, yet Adams still finished as the leading T20 run scorer in the country. He was an unlikely batting leader of a T20 dynasty, but broadly representative of Hampshires approach to top-order batting, which prioritised classical technique and rarely felt the need to turn to a white-ball renegade. The occasional, sometimes successful, flirtation with Shahid Afridi and Abdul Razzaq aside, Hampshires top three would usually comprise three of Adams, Michael Lumb, James Vince and Michael Carberry.Lumb, Vince and Carberry are more natural ball-strikers than Adams, but with games ultimately grounded in orthodoxy. With a strong base technique you can make the most of bad balls but when you are on good wickets - and Vincey is a classic example of this - you can hit good balls for four as well, says Adams.When we got onto wickets that were a bit trickier or when someone was bowling well, we were able to find ways to get through and still post a score that was defendable or put us in a winnable position. Adams nearly won a low-scoring match on a pitch that Hampshire were docked points for. He made 61 when no other team-mate reached double figures, and he ranks it as one of his best.The quartet was a product of the county system. Their techniques were strong and hand-eye coordination and muscle memory acutely attuned to picking up line and length early. The liberation afforded by T20 intensified all that they already knew. The demands of the format meant it would take just the slightest hint of width, or the faintest scent of an overpitched delivery for them to get quickly into position and, crack, the ball was gone.Hampshires advantage was that they had four players who could attack with minimal risk. Vince, for example, hit 4.93 fours per six, which is an unusually high ratio for contemporary T20 batsmen (in T20Is, Gayle hits 1.32 fours per six, and in all T20s, Warner hits 2.40). This risk management meant that the method was important, rather than personnel - there was no disproportionately important player around whom an innings was built or burnt.I think as an opener youve got freedom, explained Vince in 2014. Youve got to try and score 45 runs plus in the first six. Losing one wicket in the Powerplay is all right, I think you can accept that. But you dont want to lose more than two.Across the six seasons the quartet contributed half of all Hampshires runs. Once Lumb left after 2011, Vince, Carberry and Adams entrenched themselves further. The partnerships between the three were the most prolific during the six years, and each of them top-scored for the county at least one season apiece. Vince still holds the record for the most runs in a season, with Adams not far behind.Their strike rates over this period hover around 130 - less out of kilter in 2010 than 2015 - but each of them boasted season strike rates north of 140 at least once and all were capable of going around and above 200. Three of Hampshires five 200-plus scores in the six seasons were scored for three or fewer wickets lost.They did not possess the raw and visceral power of a Gayle, Warner or McCullum, but Hampshires top order became the most feared in county cricket. And for the majority of six seasons, across 242 innings and 6364 runs, they were brilliantly, beautifully brutal.Middle-over managers On some days we didnt even have to call, yes or no, or wait. We just knew. We had an understanding. I dunno, maybe it was a Southern African thing.Ervine is talking about batting with McKenzie, and it was this understanding, not just between them but all of the batsmen, that White believes was the foundation of Hampshires success in the middle overs.I think there are a lot of sides where when you are batting and times are tough, they can lose patience in you and it affects you, explains McKenzie. At Hampshire I felt the guys and the coach trusted me. Even though they might be thinking, hey hes a little slow, or I think hes gone too early or whatever, there was that trust and belief.Hampshires primary middle-overs batsmen were Ervine and McKenzie, the two highest scorers after Vince, Adams and Carberry. Their partnership average of 45.68 was higher than any other. Ervine played all six seasons, while McKenzie left the club after the 2013 season, but his loss was covered by Shah, who averaged less but at a higher strike rate. Together these three and the top-order trio faced 73% of all deliveries bowled at Hampshire between 2010 and 2016.Much like the top order, Ervine, McKenzie and Shah brought strong red-ball techniques and their methods and strengths worked well together. Ervine, a barrel-chested, powerful left-hander, was typically strong down the ground, while McKenzie and Shah were cuter, subtler players: McKenzie was strong over cover, Shah between mid-on and square leg. Both were adept against spin and swept neatly.McKenzie was, in the eyes of many, a defining factor in Hampshires success, bringing a Zen-like calm to Hampshires middle; critical in elevating them to defendable totals and excellent at marshalling chases. His finest innings, a match-winning, unbeaten 79 from 49 balls, came in the 2012 quarter-final against Nottinghamshire; he also scored a match-winning 52 in the 2010 final, which included just four boundaries. [A] classical middle-innings player, according to Tony Middleton, Hampshires long-term batting coach. McKenzie averaged 40, 37, 23 and 100 in his four seasons, finishing unbeaten on 18 occasions.It was the kind of role that a lesser character might have started to worry. What happens if I lose this game? Adams points out. But we all started to realise what Macs strengths were, and if Mac was a run a ball for the first part, everyone had the belief that he was going to get us to the score we needed or get us over the line.In this part of the innings, Hampshire were defined by the running between the wickets and exploiting big boundaries at the Rose Bowl. But in different ways, Ervine, McKenzie and Shah could still find the boundary when it mattered. Notably there was a difference between Ervine and Shah, who both faced, on average, 23 balls per six hit, and McKenzie who faced 62.Im not the tallest, biggest guy, so sixes didnt come that naturally, McKenzie explains. Batting in T20 was enjoyable because it highlighted my skill. I had to be smart. I had to be going at a run a ball. I had to go over extra cover, midwicket, the 45 lap. I was always looking to go over the inner ring. Instead of standing there and hitting sixes, it forced my hand to be skilful.In some ways McKenzies game was a precursor to the likes of Joe Root and Virat Kohli, minus the power. His use of angles and ability to play 360 degrees was, in the words of White, ahead of his time.The work of McKenzie and others was all the more impressive because very often there wasnt much lower-order firepower to come. Razzaq, Afridi, Daniel Christian and Glenn Maxwell played a handful of matches between them, and Cork was capable of big hits. [We lacked] that someone to come in and win the game that youd almost lost, says Middleton. Dimi [Mascarhenas] would do it now and again but not consistently. Across the six seasons Hampshires Nos. 6, 7 and 8 averaged 16 at a strike rate of 121 - sturdy but unspectacular.Instead Hampshires middle-order trio went deep regularly. McKenzie was unbeaten or batted beyond the 17th over in 54% of his innings, Ervine in 50% and Shah in 40% - high proportions for players at four and five.When batting first, the compulsion to attack recklessly was minimised by this crescendo approach, and a wealth of experience and intelligence that fostered accurate assessments of conditions and par scores. Batting second, drawing on the same attributes, like potters spinning clay, the required rate was expertly handled. Hampshires batting rarely wreaked havoc but havoc rarely needed to be wreaked; their bats were scalpels not swords.New-ball metronome Hampshire believed the best form of attack with the ball was defence. Slow the scoring enough and wickets will fall. When we talk about taking wickets, explains Mascarenhas, it is not about trying to bowl miracle balls or unbelievable yorkers or balls pitching on leg and hitting the top of off.Mascarenhas was a revolutionary figure in the English game. In 2008 he became the first English player in the IPL - playing for the inaugural champions Rajasthan Royals, who he says bore similarities to Hampshire - before carving out a successful career as a globetrotting T20 freelancer. History is unlikely to remember it as such, but Pietersen, Eoin Morgan, Jos Buttler and generations of England cricketers to come will be treading a path Mascarenhas mapped.Mascarenhas became something of a godfather in this Hampshire era. Captain in 20009 when Hampshire reached the quarter-finals for the first time, he was supposed to lead in 2010 before an injury ended his season.dddddddddddd He returned in 2011 and 2012 under Cork, and his influence on a young team was enormous. He opened the bowling in 37 of his 38 bowling innings until his retirement in 2013, and would usually bowl his four overs straight through. His overall economy was 6.80 - superb, considering he bowled in the Powerplay, where he took 39 of his 49 wickets. His name is strewn through the list of the countys most economical performances.There was a beautiful simplicity to it. With deep square-leg and deep point or third man outside the ring and the wicketkeeper up, Mascarenhas scurried towards the crease and with a small skip, arms and legs whirring, fizzed the ball down, barely following through, aiming to hit the top of off at around 75mph. Again and again and again.Everyone who was playing against me knew where I was going to bowl. They knew. And it was up to them whether they could hit it or not. I didnt really change my style. I bowled very few slower balls, very few bumpers, very few yorkers.With Mascarenhas injured in 2010, new-ball duties were shared between Cork, Wood and Razzaq. None of them bowled at great pace or looked to take wickets, instead squeezing them out through pressure. That injury accelerated the emergence of Wood, who became a vital player (82 wickets across six years). As a left-armer the angle was different but his method was similar. Unlike Mascarenhas, however, Wood was utilised not just at the beginning but also at the death.In the first six overs you are looking to cramp them so you dont give them any width, Wood says. He would keep a third man and deep square leg and if a batsmen got on top, he would bring third man up and put an extra man back on the leg side and bowl an even tighter line into the batsman.Hampshires other influential Powerplay bowler was Will Smith, who signed as a first-class batsman in 2013 but whose offspin became integral to T20 plans. He bowled 109 overs across two seasons, 26 of which were the first over of an innings. The tactic was part of a global trend and few came as close to perfecting it as Smith - his economy rate in that first over was just 5.69. His strategy was uncomplicated and predictable but difficult to counter. Bowl flat, on a length where they couldnt get underneath it and had to check their swing, while the line was tight, cramping the batsman. He bowled fast, never varying the pace because he did not have the protection to bowl slower.Hampshires bowling strategy, by definition, took time to pay dividends. There were occasions when they won matches in their bowling Powerplay but generally they were pressure-building phases. It was more likely that they could lose the match in the Powerplay than win it, but that rarely happened.Batsman-specific plans were largely formulated with the assistance of Hampshires analyst, Joe Maiden, who used a software called Feedback Cricket to produce data sheets ahead of matches. The software is fairly basic by modern standards and without Hawk-Eye requires human input of line and length using fixed-camera footage. Counties share data with one another and it is better than nothing, but it also illustrates how far behind the big leagues county cricket is in terms of resources.Spinners to winners On spin-friendly home surfaces, with big boundaries, Hampshire deployed various spinners in the middle overs, the phase of the game that truly made them the great team they were.Across six seasons spinners bowled 40% of Hampshires overs at an average of 20.94 and economy of 6.97 runs (compared to 27.49 and 8.00 for seamers). The left-arm spin of Briggs - who played more matches than any Hampshire player in this period - was the core, partnered at different times by the legspin of Afridi and Tahir, and left-arm spin of Dawson and Smith. Between them the quintet took 207 wickets.In 2011, with Afridi and Tahir partnering Briggs, Hampshire were arguably at their strongest. They eventually lost in the semi-finals in a Super Over but they only lost two games during the 16-match group stage. It was probably the biggest belief in a squad that Ive ever been involved in, Briggs remembers. Whatever score our batters could get, and 130 or 140 would often be enough, our bowlers knew their role, had such clear plans that we believed we would defend [it].The good thing was, we were all different. Tahir was a huge spinner and Afridi was very quick and skidded off the pitch. I was more conventional. We all spun the ball different amounts. Tahir was more of a wicket-taker than Afridi and I, but that suited the way we bowled.Watching Hampshire during these years, but particularly in 2011, there was an unmistakable sense that whatever the match situation they would end the middle overs in charge. All it would take was a string of dot balls, a couple of mistimed shots or a wicket. When a new batsman arrived Hampshire would squeeze him.We would take a gamble and bring five fielders in, says Ervine. If two people were still going and the partnership was building, we would still have fielders in… a lot of people would have the fielders on the ring trying to stop boundaries but we would create the pressure by denying them singles.It was a brave tactic, requiring plenty of confidence, and one that was hugely successful; in 2010 and 2011 in particular, it induced a glut of collapses: 6 for 67, 7 for 38, 6 for 13, 7 for 64, 8 for 40, 6 for 54 and 7 for 75 in 2010; 7 for 64, 8 for 53, 5 for 39, 8 for 55 and 8 for 39 in 2011, as well as 7 for 66, 6 for 54, 7 for 60, 8 for 66, 6 for 44, 6 for 52 and 5 for 35 in later seasons.We were a very well-drilled machine, says Adams. You knew exactly where you were going, you knew exactly what field people wanted, and if there was a change you pretty much knew who had moved and where.Afridi and Tahir brought international quality in 2011. But Briggs was Hampshires leading wicket-taker, with 23 wickets, and alongside McKenzie, he was the countys most important player.I tried to keep it really simple, says Briggs. Most of the time I would probably only bowl one or two different balls in four overs. And then it is just changing when you are going to bowl them.I just tried to bowl straight. Anything that wasnt hitting the stumps I counted as width, so I wanted to hit the stumps every ball and bowl a length that would hit the top of the stumps. That is probably the most difficult ball to hit. From there all I had was a decent yorker and then it was about just mixing those two balls together.Briggs bowled almost entirely from round the wicket, especially to left-handers to cramp them. His standard field was a deep square leg, deep midwicket, long-on, long-off and deep cover. Fielders would be up at fine leg, backward point, extra cover and midwicket, but if the batsman liked to cut and reverse-sweep or if the pitch was turning, he would move midwicket to a second point. Briggs influence extended into the death overs, where he, like Smith, helped redefine the expectations on spinners bowling in a tough phase.My yorker was the biggest thing, explains Briggs. I would bowl flatter and quicker and the yorker was very hard to get away. I knew if I got it right, I shouldnt be getting hit for that many.Briggs did get it right, and he did so often, finishing as Hampshires leading wicket-taker in five of their six semi-final seasons. His 31 wickets in 2010 and his 119 overall are both club records.Such was Hampshires brilliance during the middle overs that the difficulty of death bowling was somewhat mitigated. White actually believes that death bowling was Hampshires weakest facet, but that their shortcomings were masked by the strength of the preceding overs. If you have two players on 20 it is so difficult to bowl at the death… fortunately for us we often had two new batsmen. Teams didnt recognise that taking innings deep and having players in at the death was the way to beat us.Going over and round the wicket, changing angles on the crease, slower balls, yorkers and slower bouncers are all things Wood and Hampshires other bowlers would turn to. The intelligence required at the death was perhaps best illustrated by the success of Cork, who despite his age and decreasing pace remained frugal in the closing overs until his retirement in 2011. In later seasons Hampshire were left with more to do, and although they got by with the likes of Yasir Arafat, Sohail Tanvir, Kyle Abbott, Matt Coles and Fidel Edwards, they were not nearly as successful. By 2015 their economy rate in the last five overs was 10.28.Much like their batting, if Hampshires bowling appeared to lack depth thats because it did. Ervine was Hampshires sixth, and sometimes fifth, bowler, and Vince a very occasional seventh. They got by with five bowlers in 42 matches, six bowlers in 42 and seven in just four. Far from being a weakness, however, Hampshires scarcity of options revealed a settled set of primary bowlers.Time catches up with everyone. In 2016, Hampshires dominance finally ended as they finished second from bottom in the South Group. In their final match, at home to Somerset, seven of the starting XI had not been part of their first-choice XI at the start of the season. It had taken 14 matches for a dynasty to crumble.Management and players pointed to injuries and international call-ups as the primary reason, but it is possible, if you look closely, to see a wider-reaching reason. In 2016 there was an overwhelming sense that the format was leaving Hampshire behind.We have to adapt our method because the game has changed, Middleton said, following Hampshires exit. White admitted as much before the season had even begun: The game is moving on, he said in May. We are beginning to see the middle-over phase contract, and teams are treating 12 overs onwards as the death overs. Last year we identified that we didnt have a lot of depth in terms of hitters.In response to this perceived shortcoming, Hampshire signed Afridi and Darren Sammy (after missing out on Andre Russell) and decided to initiate attacks earlier than before. This was Hampshires most significant strategic shift in six years. In 2016 their power-hitters were being asked to do too much after the top order had either subsided, not scored enough runs fast enough, or both. Hampshire players made just one appearance in the highest strike rates in an innings for the season - a list otherwise well populated by lower-order hitters.There was fragility and confusion at the top; Vinces England call-up and Carberrys injuries and illness upset the balance and with them consistency. Perhaps more significantly, even when they and Adams played, they looked like batsmen from another era. Strike rates hovering around 120 were fine in 2010 but not good enough in 2016. Middleton now believes Hampshire are in danger of being left behind in the Powerplay too as power-hitting - hitting over rather than through the ring - continues to take hold. Briggs, who joined Sussex after 2015, admits their bowling strategy was coming under pressure even before he left. [Bowling a consistent line and length] worked for a long time but as the game evolved, it has got harder, he says. Even in the last couple of years T20 has got so much better, you would not be able to get away with that nowadays. Youve got to have more variations and more mix-ups.It could be argued more broadly that Hampshires struggles shed light on the divergence between red-ball and white-ball cricket. In 2010, White felt having players who spanned formats was critical to their success; by 2016 it could be argued it was critical to their failure (eventual champions Northamptonshire said they prioritised T20).There is something symbolically appropriate about Hampshires demise. The disjointed, cross-format domestic schedule, with T20 games fit in between first-class matches, means that focused periods of training are rare if not impossible. Until 2014 the T20 tournament was staged in one single block in the calendar, largely or entirely separate from other formats. But in a move to increase attendances by spreading matches more thinly, the block was scrapped for a season-long competition.So in 2016, Hampshire were able to have just three T20-specific training sessions, one of which was forced indoors by rain, and a handful of one-on-one sessions. It hardly felt like the front line of a revolution. Batsmen and bowlers were split into scenario groups. There was some range-hitting, ramping and scooping from the batsmen; some cone-targeting, drills and variations from the bowlers; and as impressive as the skills were, there was an air of casual experimentation about it, a far cry from the breeding grounds of innovation that training sessions in the IPL, BBL and CPL are.But it is an apposite time for eras to end because T20 in England are potentially on the cusp of seminal change. By 2018, there could be a city-based, BBL-style T20 tournament, played in one block in the calendar. Although the plan has had its opponents among counties, Hampshire, led by their ambitious chairman Rod Bransgrove, were one of the earliest proponents. Whatever comes now, however, it should not obscure the legacy of Hampshire as one of T20s first great sides. ' ' '