Hampshire fail to hold on
Man of the Match
By Grockle
May 24 2003
14 points at the Rosebowl as the boys bowl themselves to victory on the back of the Aussie ton from our man of the moment. 8 wickets from Nixon broke the back of the Hampshire men twice and we were home with time to spare. Surrey next!
v HAMPSHIRE CC2 @ The Rosebowl May 24 2003
DAY ONE |
DAY TWO |
DAY THREE |
DAY FOUR |
SCORECARD |
It was always going to be hard for Hampshire to save this game, as long as the weather stayed dry. With only 60 runs on the board and only 4 wickets left, they were going to have to bat out of their skins to give us a total to chase and all we needed was quick wickets and a dry afternoon to get the points....or that was the theory anyway!
First we had to get rid of the last batsmen and especially Kenway, who was 6 from a rare century. That was as close as he got, Nixon steamed in for his first over an d Kenway snicked the first ball to Turner and a wicket fell without addition to the overnight score. Tremlett and Udal carried the fight for a while, adding 31 before Udalgave Blackwell a catch off the bowling of Francis - 270 - but Mullally only stayed for 5 balls and 1 run added before Hampshire were 271 for 9. Bruce and Tremlett showed a little more backbone and saw the score over 300 before McLean castled Tremlett for a fighting 43 and the home side finished on 306.
128 to win with 2 sessions to get them? Well it was just far enough to cause a side to be careful and just close enough to make a side think that it would be easy. Wood opened with Rob Turner (surprising some, although it's not the first time the wicketkeeper has opened) but it didn't work because Dimitiri Mascarenhas had other ideas. He had Wood LBW for 4 at 17 and Turner 10 minutes later, caught Pothas, for 13. 20 for 2 was where we had been before. Cox didn't provide the scoring stability of the first innings and was LBW to Bruce for 8 (3 for 35) closely followed by the captain - second catch for Pothas off Bruce for 17.
We were 59 for 4 needing another 69 for victory and I am sure Somerset fans were starting to get jittery. Blackwell and Bryant needed to sort it out and they did. James Bryant hasn't scored big yet, but he has scored solid and Blacky hit 41 off 42 with 5 fours and 1 six. We passed the hampshire score and took the 14 points.
A good victory - away from home again with a weakened bowling attack showing some teeth and our Aussie showing some 1999 form. The Championship is looking good. Nixon got his 8 wickets, Frankie got 5 and Gareth Andrew walked away from his debut with 4 Championship wickets to his name. Even Burnsy had a say in the second innings.
But the man who steadied the ship when it was rocky at the start and gave us the bedrock for this victory was the Tasmanian. His 127 was way ahead of anyone else and took us from 3 for 30 to another away win. Now for Surrey and an improvement in our one day form!
Somerset Man of the Match - Jamie Cox