Mason Crane: Hampshire's Royal London One-Day Cup defeat to Somerset making us hungrier for T20 Blast glory

The Ageas Bowl side get their campaign under way at home to south-coast rivals Sussex Sharks on Friday, Jul 19. Hampshire have already displayed their quality with the white ball this season. They made it to Lord’s in the 50-over competition but suffered a six-wicket defeat to Somerset in May. Crane admitted the pain of that defeat is still raw among the Ageas Bowl squad. And the leg-break bowler feels Hampshire can use their disappointment to drive them forward as they aim to win the T20 Blast for the first time since 2012. The England international said: ‘We want to win everything we can. ‘Getting so close in the One-Day Cup is still quite raw among the squad. ‘We didn’t have some key players for the final nor an overseas player, which was tough when you’ve played the whole campaign like that. ‘We probably were a few runs short. When you score fewer runs, you need to take early wickets and we didn’t. ‘It was tough but we’ll all learn from it and hopefully that can drive us forward in the T20. ‘It does make you hungrier. Every time you play in those big games, the one overriding feeling – whether you win or lose – is that you want to be involved in more of them. ‘We have got a really good squad available and come Finals Day I’m hopeful we will be contending for it.’ Hampshire endured a difficult T20 season last year. They failed to make it to Finals Day at Edgbaston, finishing second bottom of the South table. Injury ruled Crane out of the campaign, but he feels this year's squad is stronger than 12 months ago. He added: ‘It was disappointing but, at the same time, T20 is all about momentum. ‘I don’t think the guys ever got that last year. I wasn't really involved so can’t comment too much. ‘There’s a lot of talent in the squad and we’ve added even more. ‘After a tough season last year, everyone will be hurting from that and raring to go.’