By Ben Woodall
April 21 2003

The game between Worcestershire and Hampshire at New Road brought us four days of great cricket to set the 2003 season off to a good start although the game ended up in a draw. Worcestershire got off to a good start on day one with Stephen Peters (52) and Graeme Hick (72) putting together a good partnership for the second wicket after Anurag Singh fell early on. Ben Smith,in his first game as captain,later went on to make 104 from just 161 balls to give Worcestershire the perfect platform.Kabir Ali smashed a quickfire 40 towards the end of the innings before being bowled by Ed Giddins who ended up with 4 wickets for 88 runs.On his return to County Cricket,Wasim Akram had figures of 3/102 from 26 overs.Worcestershire finally ended up on 396 all out which looked a decent total at the time.

Hampshires first innings didn't get off to the best start after losing both openers cheaply.However,up stepped England international John Crawley and he toiled away for 93 from 207 balls to help stabilise Hampshire after their fragile start.With the middle order found wanting,up stepped Nic Pothas who made 146 not out to take Hampshire up to 347 all out,49 runs behind Worcestershire.Four wickets each for Worcestershires main strike bowlers,Kabir Ali (4-74) and debutant Nantie Hayward (4-95) seemed to prove their quality at this level.

Starting 49 runs ahead,Worcestershire lost Anurag Singh early as he made 8 for the second time in the game.A return of 16 runs from two innings shows Anurag hasn't made the best of starts to the season.Also found wanting was ex-skipper Graeme Hick,as he failed to carry on his good form from the first innings as he only made 4 before being trapped lbw by the ever-dependable Giddins.Up stepped skipper Ben Smith for the second time in the game to save Worcestershires innings as he made an impressive 82 whilst being ably supported by Vikram Solanki (45).Kabir Ali again made quickfire runs towards the end of the Worcestershire innings (25) to take the Pears to 264-9 declared,setting Hampshire 313 to win.

With time against them,Hampshire made a decent effort to obtain the set total but eventually they ended up on 276-9.Half centuries from Robin Smith (77) and John Crawley (67) had set Hampshire on their way but consistent runs from all the other batsmen failed to materialise as only Mascarenhas (38) and Pothas (48) impressed with the bat.Nantie Haywards first 5 wicket haul for the Pears came however on the last day,as he ripped through the Hampshire line-up to take 5-70.Hampshires last pair,Ed Giddins and Alan Mullally,not normally best known for their batting,somehow managed to hang on for the last 12 balls of the day to gain their side a valuable draw.