Hampshire Defeated On Roller-Coaster Day Three

May 1 2013

David Balcombe took the wickets of Alastair Cook and Ravi Bopara

Essex v Hampshire
LV= County Championship
Mon 29 – Thurs 25 April
Chelmsford

Summary: Essex beat Hampshire by four wickets
Hampshire: 197 & 199
Essex: 254 & 143-6 (40.1 ovs)
Scorecard
Concurrent Table

Hampshire Team
Adams*, Carberry, Dawson, Bailey, Vince, Ervine, Wheater+, Wood, Balcombe, Briggs, Tomlinson
Essex Team
Cook, Westley, Quiney, Bopara, Pettini, Foakes, Foster*+, Napier, Masters, Phillips, Topley

Hampshire and Essex don’t seem to do boring LV= County Championship matches at Chelmsford and so it proved in this one, which finished with a home win inside three days.

In 2012, the visitors won this fixture by just two runs late on day four but this time the hosts got their revenge as a century partnership from Graham Napier (78*) and Mark Pettini (35*) rescued their team having, at one point, been 31-6 in pursuit of a 143-run target!

Having started the day effectively 20-2, Hampshire’s second innings was built around half-centuries from Liam Dawson (52) and James Vince (67), but the latter’s dismissal at 188-6 triggered a collapse that saw the visitors finish one shy of 200.

Such a small target put the hosts very much in the driving seat but, on a day when a bookie would have made a mint, so often and so dramatically did the odds swing from one side’s favour to the others’, the wheels soon looked to be coming off.

David Balcombe (2-32) put in the hard yards early on, claiming the scalps of England stars Alastair Cook (4) -bowled through the gate in the second over – and Ravi Bopara who, having been softened up by two spitting Balcs deliveries, went for a third-ball duck in the sixth.

In between, there was the dismissal of Tom Westley (8) who, having seen George Bailey mis-field a nudge for a single, set off for a second run that was turned down by Rob Quiney. Hampshire’s Australian reacted quickest to recover and threw down the stumps at the non-striker’s end with a direct hit, all of which left Essex 16-3.

With another eight runs added to the total, Quiney (10) edged James Tomlinson (2-38) behind and Ben Foakes was lbw to the same player next ball.

But, if Westley’s run-out was ill-judged, then his skipper, James Foster’s was farcical. This time, Bailey had to be agile in the field but was more than up to the challenge. That meant there was never a run to take – certainly not one you’d risk with your side on 31-5 - but Foster did so and promptly saw another direct hit send him back to the hutch.

At this point, it seemed like Hampshire, so often the miracle-workers in limited-overs cricket in recent years, might just be able to pull off a famous result in this, a First Class match. Indeed, had either of Pettini or Napier gone, it may well have been lights out with little left in the home side’s tail.

As it happened, the remaining two hours and several bowling changes couldn’t find the breakthrough and Essex took the 16 points for the win to add to their five bonus points.

Hampshire leave with three points – all of them bowling bonus ones – which falls some way short of justly reflecting the balance of the play over the three days. They now have a day to prepare for the opening match of their Yorkshire Bank 40 title defence against the same outfit on Friday.

They’re next in action in the Championship on when they take on Gloucestershire at Bristol, starting next Wednesday.

Words: Simon Vincent
Images: Getty Images

Day Two

Summary: Hampshire led Essex by 20 runs
with eight wickets remaining in their second innings
Hampshire: 197 & 77-2 (36 ovs)
Essex: 254

It’s a cricketing cliché but the first session in the morning will be all-important after a finely balanced day two of this LV= County Championship match between Hampshire and Essex at the ECG, Chelmsford.

A strong batting performance from the hosts’ tail early in the day ensured a first innings lead of 57, but then a partnership worth the same amount from George Bailey (26*) and Liam Dawson (31*) regained Hampshire a lead of 20 by stumps.

After 15 wickets fell on day one, Hampshire looked like they might have picked up where they left off as wickets from birthday-boy Danny Briggs (3-56) and James Tomlinson (3-40) reduced Essex from 72-5 overnight to 117-7 relatively quickly.

But the big wicket was always likely to be that of England captain, Alastair Cook (59) who brought up his 50 (131 balls, five fours) before lunch; Essex 144-7. That scalp would come not long afterwards, though, when the opener walked across his stumps to a Tomlinson delivery and was promptly given lbw. At that stage, Essex were 156-8, still 45 runs behind – Hampshire in control.

However, that brought together Tim Phillips (40*) and Graham Napier (74) for what has proven to be the defining partnership of the match so far. Together they put on 87 for the ninth wicket, taking their team into a small but psychologically-important lead. The latter – a non-bowling number 10 so far in this match – was not out as his team finished on 254.

In a low-scoring game such as this such small margins are important and it was looking doubly so when the visitors lost two early wickets with just 21 on the board.

Fortunately, Bailey and Dawson – who came to their side’s rescue with a big third-wicket partnership when they were in a similarly precarious position in the first innings against Leicestershire - did the job again, building a 50 partnership before stumps.

On the aforementioned occasion, the duo reached 140 together before one of them was heading back to the pavilion. Something approaching that, early on day three would go a long way towards wrestling back the initiative for Hampshire in this match... fingers crossed!

Words: Simon Vincent
Images: NJM Photographs

Day One

Summary: Essex trailed Hampshire by 125 runs
with five wickets remaining in the first innings
Hampshire: 197
Essex: 72-5 (28 ovs)

A vitriolic late display from Hampshire's bowlers wrestled back the initiative after a difficult start on day one of this LV= County Championship match against Essex at the ECG, Chelmsford.

Five wickets in the last hour of play saw the hosts reduced to 72-5 by stumps (at one point that was 52-5!) in response to Hampshire's 197 - a deficit of 125 runs on first innings so far.

Having won the toss and elected to bat first, Jimmy Adams' side, themselves, looked to be in trouble at 47-4 but then an 82-run fifth-wicket partnership between the in-form James Vince (43) and Sean Ervine (60) put them back in contention.

However, any side with Alastair Cook in their midst is going to back themselves to dig in and that's exactly what the England captain did - even if his team-mates couldn't stick with him.

It took a slice of luck for the visitors to get their first scalp as James Tomlinson (1-16 off 6 overs) deflected a Cook drive off his own bowling onto the stumps at the non-strikers' end, running Tom Westley (16) out. But it was just reward for some tight bowling and the left-arm seamer was at it again as overseas, Rob Quiney was lbw to a delivery that was pitching on middle and leg.

The hosts moved to what they thought might be the safety of the 50 mark with two Internationals at the crease but, with his first ball in the attack, a fellow International, Danny Briggs, had new man, Ravi Bopara (7) trapped plumb in front. 

Finally, Ervine was brought into the attack for the last few overs and promptly took two wickets in three balls to leave the hosts teetering - their middle-order exposed.

Their major hopes on day two lie with Cook (25*) and next man in, James Foster as the experienced duo look to rescue their innings.

Words: Simon Vincent
Interview: BBC Radio Solent
Images: Getty

Background

Hampshire should have had two victories out of two before this match; the only reason they didn’t is because of rain ruining their fourth day against Leicestershire.

However, they bounced back beautifully with a comprehensive innings-and-42-run victory over Worcestershire at The Ageas Bowl a fortnight later and had taken maximum bonus points in both fixtures.

Essex’s start, on the other hand, hadn’t gone so well. An innings defeat to Northamptonshire had led manager, Paul Grayson to issue a public apology for a performance which he described as “shambolic” and “totally unacceptable”. Previous to that his side had drawn with Gloucestershire in a high-scoring match at the ECG.

Graeme Napier, at least, had been playing well, having taken a six-fer and first-innings top-scored with 73 at Wantage Road. He took 41 Division Two wickets in 2012 so was clearly a threat. Tom Westley – their promising young batsman - also scored 163 against Gloucs.