Another one Looming

By Grockle
August 17 2002

If we cannot post second innings totals then we cannot win close fought matches. We didn't and we won't. Piran Holloway and Rob Turner toiled manfully to keep our second innings together but Hampshire need 97 to win in a day with 8 wickets to get them.

v HAMPSHIRE CC1@ THE ROSEBOWL AUGUST 14 2002

DAY ONE

DAY TWO

DAY THREE

DAY FOUR

So, we needed a consolidating second innings to give us a chance of a run in against Hampshire on the final day and the twenty points if possible.  They had the initiative from Day 2 due to the late loss of Cox and Wood and therefore or next five batsmen needed to put the scores together and a late charge from 8, 9 and 10 could be the icing on the cake...

When you're down you're down I suppose but a disappointing batting performance was once again saved by the 'non-batsmen' with the help of Rob Turner's 34 and the high score of returnee Piran Holloway with 48  He was the last man out after a rearguard action from him and the bowling fraternity got us from 79 for 6 to 190 all out with a not good enough lead of 232.

An initial partnership of 36 between overnight batsment Mike Burns and nightwatchman Matt Bulbeck would have been good, if it hadn't been for the fact that the next man to go was the recognised batsman and he had not been scoring the runs.  We seem absolutely parched for runs at 1 to 4 and Burnsy's 11 is just not good enough.  Bully finally went for a score of 26 having done the job he had been sent in to do.  The problem is that a nightwatchman protecting the batters in a side so they can overcome the last few overs of the evening session and the first few of the next morning is of no use if the men who follow him in are giving their wickets away with such frequent regularity - to be honest we may as well just bat through!

The score had gon on to 57 for 4 by this time and Demitri Mascarenhas was having a good morning.  Keith Parsons and Ian Blackwell were in familiar territory and the Somerset support was seeing a familiar result.  Parsons scored slowly and then went to Tremlett for 6 and Blackwell didn't worry the scorers, or the Hampshire team for long either - he also went to Tremlett for the same score but he saw his wicket destroyed instead.  Someone suggested that Blacky had been spoiled by the flat Taunton wickets and that he doesn't seem to make big and fast scores away from home.  I'm not sure that is true but I hope that Rod Marsh hasn't been watching some of his more recent performances - although his success with the ball has been vital on more than one occasion.

Hampshire are into our 'soft underbelly' at 79 for 6.  The problem for most opponents this year is that they find our tail much much harder to dislodge than the 'dangerous top order'.  Rob Turner put down roots and whacked the score up by 69 with Piran Holloway who had been in the position of making a score while mayhem took place at the other end.  148 for 7 was not healthy but it was nearly twice what the other six had achieved and it was a shame that Turner couldn't stay around to help produce a defendable target.  He went LBW to Udal (no spinners needed in this game though!).   Johnson could not reproduce the heroics of the first knock and went for the popular score of 6 to his namesake - Johnson.  How many times has that happened I wonder?   That two players with the same name dismiss each other in the same game?  Ahh well...back to the torture!

Andy Caddick was subborn and helped Holloway to amass another 21 before he was bowled by Udal and Francis only had to face two balls as Holloway tried to force the score over 200 and was Tremlett, and Hampshire's, last victim 2 short of a deserved 50.  A day and a quarter for Hampshire to get 232 on a spinning track (is it?) with one Somerset spinner..what more could we need in a race for survival.  But, the Teletext watchers ask, surely the pitch is doing something and we may get into them quickly with our big seam attack?  Not really, Neil Johnson and Jason Laney, on the same track that had been a graveyard for our top men put on a first wicket partnership of 97 before Simon Francis, our fourth seamer, got Laney.  Johnson passed 50 before he became our second victim to our fifth seamer Keith Parsons.  119 for 2 did not bode well for a glorious Somerset victory.  The bowling was tight with Francis especially bowling in thrifty fashion ( 5/0/10/1) but we need wickets and they are not coming. 

Hampshire finished on 136 for 2 needind 97 for victory which they will pass this morning probably sending us to another defeat we cannot afford against a side just above us in the area of death.  Ho Hum....