Hampshire Trio Torment Leicestershire

Report from day two of Hampshire's LV= County Championship match against Leicestershire at The Ageas Bowl

Hampshire v Leicestershire
LV= County Championship
Day Two: Friday 27 April 2012
The Ageas Bowl

Summary: Hampshire trail Leicestershire by 53 runs
with six wickets in hand in the first innings
Leicestershire: 234
Hampshire: 181-4
Full Scorecard

Hampshire Team
Carberry, Dawson, Katich*, Vince, Ervine, Terry, Bates⁺, Wood, Riazuddin, Balcombe, Griffiths

Leicestershire Team
Boyce, Smith, Ali, Sarwan*, Cobb, Du Toit, Eckersley⁺, White, Joseph, Malik, Wyatt

A trio of classy performances from Liam Dawson (5-29), Michael Carberry (73*) and Simon Katich (54) put Hampshire in a commanding position on day two of this LV= County Championship match against Leicestershire at The Ageas Bowl.

First Dawson completed his first-ever Championship five-fer to limit the visitors to 234 and just a single batting bonus point (Hampshire took all three bowling bonus points).

Then Carberry and Katich put on an important 100 partnership when their side were looking shaky to help their side to 181-4 at stumps – 53 behind on the first innings.

The hosts will resume with Carberry (who batted with a runner for the latter part of the day) and Sean Ervine (17*) at the crease. It’s been confirmed Carberry’s injury is unrelated to the groin injury sustained at Glamorgan last week.

Dawson, who had surprised everyone simply by bowling on a seemingly seam-friendly track (let alone taking wickets) on day one, picked up where he left off overnight by applying immediate pressure on batsmen Josh Cobb and Ned Eckersley.

And it wasn’t long before the former whipped one of the 22 year-old’s slow left arm deliveries to David Griffiths at point to depart for five.

Hampshire might have used that as inspiration to kick on but were thwarted as a heavy burst of rain forced the players into an early lunch. Indeed, it was Eckersley and Wayne White who looked more comfortable on the return, taking their side to 200.

For a while, stand-in Hampshire captain Katich attempted to catch his opposition out with the unexpected, aware that it had paid dividends on the first day with Dawson’s spell. James Vince was given the new ball (he ended with figures of 0-4 off two overs), but it was only when normal service was resumed that the Leicestershire innings began to be wrapped up.

David Balcombe saw off Eckersley (34) with a little bit of help from a marvellous diving catch from Vince at cover. White’s (21) lbw gave Dawson his five-fer and, just as he was eying team-mate Dimi Mascarenhas’ ground record bowling figures (5-22) against Leicestershire, a Griffiths bouncer had Wyatt (3) caught behind; Hampshire had a total of 234 to aim at.

But things didn’t start promisingly as Championship debutant Sean Terry went without scoring and, inside 10 overs, Dawson couldn’t continue his heroics with the bat as he went for 19.

That was when Carberry [pictured above] and Katich came together and, over the course of the next 144 balls (and just 104 minutes) they sprayed a range of fours to all angles to bring up the century partnership and take Hampshire to within 100 runs of their visitors’ first inning total.

15 minutes either side of that landmark, first the England International (who had earned a call-up for the Lions squad to face the West Indies earlier in the day), then his Australian colleague brought up their individual 50s.

And though Hampshire would lose Katich (54) and Vince (5) before the end, they will feel pretty confident of registering a decent score in the morning.

Catch Up

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Alternately, ball-by-ball commentary of this match is available via the Hospital Broadcasting Association and Beatport. Click here to find out how to listen in when a match is in play.

Preview:	Tomlinson Joins Squad to Face Leicestershire
Day One:	Dawson Leads Late Rally as Hants Take Control

Words: Simon Vincent
Interview: BBC Radio Solent's
Kevan James
Images: LMI Photography

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