MATCH REPORT: Hampshire wrap up innings victory in three days
Hampshire wrapped up an innings and 37 run victory on the third day of this Vitality County Championship match after making Lancashire follow-on and then bowling the hosts out for 152 runs in their second innings.
The defeat increases Red Rose relegation worries with Lancashire remaining in ninth place on 106 points with three games to play.
It took Hampshire just nine deliveries to take the two remaining first innings wickets when Lancashire resumed the day on 193 for eight with seven runs added as George Bell (35) and Tom Aspinwall (0) fell to John Turner and Liam Dawson respectively, the latter finishing with a season best 5 for 47 to add to his century on the second day.
The visitors, leading by 189 runs, enforced the follow-on and made early inroads into the Lancashire second innings with both Keaton Jennings (1) and Josh Bohannon (0) lbw to Muhammad Abbas and Turner respectively.
Luke Wells and Rocky Flintoff prevented any further loss to reach lunch on 34 for two but a determined 53-ball effort Flintoff ended soon after the resumption when he edged a good length ball from Abbas that left him off the pitch to be caught behind for 8. He was soon followed by Matty Hurst who was bowled by nicely flighted delivery from Dawson for 0.
That left Lancashire on 44 for four but a gritty 20-over alliance between Wells and Bell doubled that total and stalled the Hampshire victory push until just before tea when both batters departed in quick succession.
That began a slow but steady fall of wickets that saw the last six fall for 64 runs in 24 overs.
James Fuller snared Bell for 21 (from 70 balls) from an inside edge onto his thigh pad that ballooned up to Fletcha Middleton at short leg while Wells, having just reached his half century from 143 balls in three and a half hours of resolute batting, saw his defensive shot to a Dawson slower ball spin off the pitch and onto his stumps for 51.
Venkatesh Iyer, in his final match, thumped a six and 4 fours in attacking 27-ball cameo of 35 before chopping on to Dawson and Balderson slashed a drive to second slip off Abbas for 10.
Appropriately the excellent Dawson completed a convincing victory by taking the final two wickets of Tom Hartley and Tom Bailey to finish with a second five-wicket haul of 5 for 52 and match figures of 10-99.
Points: Lancashire 3, Hampshire 22.
“It’s very disappointing,” reflected Head Coach Dale Benkenstein.
“The Surrey game you put down to playing the champions and a very good side. But in the first division you are coming up against good sides every week.
“I think there’s a lot of opportunity we are giving our players, and really there’s no excuses over the last three days. I think we had a fantastic pitch and a first day position where we could have got them 300 all out. That last wicket partnership really hurt us, mentally as well.
“Credit to them, their bowling was incredibly disciplined over a long period of time, but I still think that the pitch was good enough for us to be able to combat that. We haven’t been good enough and that’s disappointing.
“We lack a bit of quality and experience, and I think that one or two players does make a difference. You are hoping for people to step up and generally over time they will, but no one is really putting in the performances having been given the opportunity. You are also expecting your senior players to perform and isn’t happening either so it’s a combination of where we are at the minute as a team. There’s a bit of a lack of performance which probably comes with a lack of confidence.”
“There’s a lot of learning going on, and sometimes that hurts a bit but I’m hoping to see improvement over the next few games and that’s all we can really do. Keep trying to move forward. At the moment we are saying all the right things, but we’ve got to go and do it out in the middle and we’re not doing it at moment.
“I think we have got the players to do it, but it’s about us resetting a bit. The T20 quarter-final will be good for us to change the mindset a bit. There will be a lot of positive energy going into that, and that will also give us a bit of time to reset. Come back and play these last three games as well as we can.”
“We are trying to get a fast bowler over the line at the moment which I think would really help us get twenty wickets, and having a bit of pace and experience in the attack would be helpful for these last three matches.
“That has been the plan for these last five games. It hasn’t quite worked out but it looks like we may have an overseas player coming in which will give us a bit of a boost.”
Ken Grime
Photos: Barry Mitchell, Luke Adams, Dan Adams
