Hightlight for Hants fan

By Darren Gosling
May 31 2016

Darren Gosling reports on an excellent day for the Middle a dire one for Hants in very cold conditions.  

Overnight score: Middx 342-3 (Voges 128*)

Weather: Overcast, windy (not warm!)

Session 1

Having arrived late yesterday and missed our opener’s dismissals, I again timed my (slightly late) arrival to perfection on day 2 to see Simmo hit the ball to the boundary and earn the Middle our 4^th batting point.

Thereafter Voges and particularly Simmo played with positive intent and with 10 of the 110 bonus point earning overs remaining, maximum batting points looked on.

Tino Best soon replaced Tomlinson from the Lake End but although fired up Tino enjoyed a torrid time at the hands of both Middlesex batsmen who went toe to toe with the West Indian quick. 

Simmo reached his 50 with a boundary (off McLaren), this was followed soon after with Voges playing a superb straight drive off Best to bring up the 100 partnership.

Best responded by bowling a beamer at Voges which also eluded Wheater to go to the boundary. The subsequent 6 runs from the delivery brought up the Middlesex 400 and maximum batting points and a warning for Best from umpire Mallender.

Voges then went to 152 (his best score for the Middle) off the beleaguered Best who was a major contributor to the 53 extras and soon withdrawn from the Hampshire attack and replaced by Dawson.

Simmo then went in to overdrive hitting Tomlinson for a 6 and followed this with two further maximums off Dawson as the Middle powered past 450 and Simmo towards his first ton of the season. This duly came (from 125 balls) along with an immediate declaration on 467-3, leaving the Middle half an hour to go at the Hampshire openers before lunch.

Murts and RoJo opened the bowling to Carberry & Adams and Murts made an early breakthrough in the 3^rd over as Carberry (4) edged behind to Simmo, Hampshire 6-1.

Murts beat new batsmen Smith a few times while Adams survived an LBW appeal from RoJo as Hampshire made it through to lunch without further damage to reach 15-1.

Session 2

After lunch with only 8 overs on the new ball Murts continued to find sideways movement and RoJo extra lift as Hampshire struggled to gain the ascendancy.

Having advanced to 32 Hampshire lost their second wicket when Smith (12) edged Murts to Franklin in the slips. Hampshire added just 11 more runs before the irrepressible Murts made a complete mess of Adams’ stumps, removing him for 19 with Dawson joining Ervine at the wicket. 

A double bowling change saw Franklin and debutant Fuller introduced to the attack and in his first over Fuller induced a top edge from Ervine that narrowly fell short of Gubbins. Boundaries continued to be hard to come by as Ervine and Dawson struggled to get on top of the Middlesex bowling. The pressure culminated in Fuller bagging his first wicket for the Middle when Dawson (21) saw his shot fly to Robson  leaving Hampshire 77-4.

Hampshire continued to toil and with 8 overs remaining before tea Ollie was introduced in to the attack and took just 2 balls to reduce Hampshire to 89-5 when he removed debutant Weatherly (4) who clipped the ball in the air square of the wicket where a running Gubbins pouched the catch. New batsmen Wheater almost chopped RoJo on to his stumps before an Ervine single gave the visiting supporters something to cheer at last as they reached 100- 5 on the stroke of tea.

Session 3

Murts and RoJo opened the bowling after tea and before long RoJo had the attacking Wheater (22) caught at the wicket by Simmo, Hampshire 116-6. A procession of Hampshire batsmen then followed as they collapsed to 131 all out. Ervine (31) was the first to go becoming Murts’ 4^th victim as a rising delivery took his top edge, Simmo taking the catch. Tino Best added just the 3 runs before chipping the ball to Murtagh at mid-on. Crane departed very next ball edging to Voges in the slips leaving RoJo on a hat-trick. Tomlinson survived the hat-trick ball but not much longer as he became the final victim when he fell to a vicious rising delivery from RoJo, Franklin taking the catch in the slips. 

With a comprehensive lead of 336 and rain forecast for most of day 3, Middlesex had no hesitation in enforcing the Hampshire follow-on.

Hampshire’s woes continued when Murts took his 5^th wicket of the afternoon as Smith (0) edged to Simmo leaving Hampshire 0-1 in their second dig.

Carberry played with positive intent and looked in good touch before edging to Rayner in the slips for 21, becoming Fuller’s second victim of the day as Hampshire slipped to 30-2. Fuller wasn’t done there though and removed Ervine’s off-stump for 1, leaving Hampshire 38-3. 

Adams & Dawson managed to see Hampshire through to the close without further loss as Hampshire finished day 2 on 62-3, still trailing Middlesex by 274 runs.

In a match totally dominated by Middlesex so far Hampshire’s only chance of avoiding defeat would appear to depend on the wet weather forecast to come.

Despite an abysmal climate in which to watch cricket those Middlesex die-hards that braved today’s elements will be hopeful of enough play in the remaining two days to see the Middle pick up our first Championship win of the season. Victory would be made even sweeter in the knowledge that this would leave Surrey as the only team in Division 1 without a win this season J