Hampshire beat South Group leaders Essex by five wickets at Chelmsford this evening as Matt Coles hit the season's fastest fifty in the T20 Blast.
Coles hit five sixes to bring up his half-century off 18 balls but was caught off David Masters for 54.
Essex had posted a total of 167-9 thanks to Mark Pettini (44), Ryan ten Doeschate (36) and Tom Westley (31) but Michael Carberry hit a speedy 57 and Coles's contribution meant that Hampshire got to 168-5 with 15 balls to spare.
This was the final group fixture for the visitors, and victory gives them a chance of home advantage in the quarter-finals as it took them to second place, two points ahead of Surrey.
