Countdown to 2010 Begins

There's plenty for Hampshire fans to be excited about now that next season’s fixtures have been released. The LV County Championship campaign begins on April 9th with three fascinating away trips. The team go to Chelmsford to face recently promoted Essex before venturing north to the current LVCC Champions Durham, and then heading to Edgbaston to take on Warwickshire. Last season’s runners up Nottinghamshire are the first visitors at home in the LVCC on May 4th, with Somerset coming to The Rose Bowl a week later.

Nic Pothas is as upbeat as ever about the news. “In a way it is better to be travelling around the country at the start of the season when you are fresh and raring to go. Later on in the season, it is more of an issue when you are tired and carrying a few niggles. Not playing at home for the first few games means we will have more fixtures at home in the summer when the wickets are dryer and hopefully that will help Ajantha Mendis.

“The County Championship is really tough whoever you play. Obviously, Essex are newly promoted and won’t be used to the intensity of the First Division so we need to use that to our advantage. We will be looking to hit them hard like we did with Worcestershire at the start of last season [Hampshire won inside three days]. Having said that I believe Essex will be a better side than Worcester were last year. Playing Essex away in four day cricket is very different from playing Essex away in one day cricket where they are a much more confident side.

“Durham away is always a very difficult fixture but it’s nice to catch them at the start before they hit their straps. As a squad we will have to be at our best to beat them so we just want to have a really good pre season, get our planning right, go there and perform well.”

There is a certain symmetry to the campaign as at the end of the season Hampshire also have three consecutive away LVCC games, this time against Yorkshire, Lancashire and Division Two champions Kent, before the curtain closer on September 13th against Warwickshire at home.

The Hawks kick off their ECB 40 League season away at Durham before entertaining Nottinghamshire for the first game at The Rose Bowl. Kent, Leicestershire, Scotland and Warwickshire make up the other sides in Group C in the new competition before the end of season semi-finals and final in September.

Hampshire Hawks’ Friends Provident T20 season begins on June 3rd with a floodlit fixture against 2008 losing finalists Kent at The Rose Bowl. New signing Simon Jones will be heading back to his Glamorgan roots in the Hawks’ first away Twenty20 fixture at the SWALEC Stadium. June and July are dominated by T20 action as more emphasis has been put on the competition this season. Finals’ Day will make a splendid return to The Rose Bowl on August 14th so keep your eye out for that one.

England and Australia renew their rivalry on June 22nd with a floodlit NatWest Series One Day International at The Rose Bowl before England Women take on India Women in a NatWest Women's International Twenty20 on July 1st. Pakistan come to Hampshire on September 22nd to play England in another NatWest Series One Day International, which will be last game of the season at The Rose Bowl.

Written for Hampshire CCC website

Hampshire v Nottinghamshire Pro40

The three runs scored off the first two overs of Hampshire’s innings gave The Rose Bowl crowd basking in the autumn sunshine little indication of what was to come. But in Darren Pattinson’s second over Michael Lumb broke loose with a six so huge it completely unnerved the bowler, who promptly no balled and the subsequent free hit was knocked back over his head for four.

This set the tone for what was to follow and by the end of the tenth over Hampshire had put on 78 runs with Lumb leading the way on 47. Lumb’s fifty came up shortly afterwards, with a well timed two off Jason Brown in an over that went for 12 runs in total, leaving the Outlaws little option but to go for the spin of Samit Patel. Although this slowed the run rate it was Kevin O’Brien, bowling from the pavilion end, who ended Lumb’s dominance when he was out stumped. His innings of 61 had taken only 47 balls, with 10 fours and a six, his partnership with Jimmy Adams achieving a run rate of 7.5 an over.

It was now Adams’ turn to accelerate and he showed his intent with two fine fours off the first balls of the next over. His next boundary left new batting partner James Vince flat on the floor as he made a spectacular dive to avoid the speeding ball. Adams continued to show his liking for Patel’s bowling when he brought up his fifty with a hard run two. In the context of the game it was positively sedate, taking 56 balls, with 8 fours.

Hampshire were making batting look all too easy, with Vince the third player to reach fifty, in 39 balls and with 5 fours, pulled and driven to all corners of the ground, mainly off Luke Fletcher. But the party was almost over, when, in the 28th over Outlaws’ captain Chris Read turned to his seventh bowler, rookie Akhil Patel, Samit’s younger brother, who promptly took a wicket with his first List A ball. Vince was caught by Carter running in from back of square leg for 55.
Patel was to prove that is wasn’t simply beginner’s luck when in his next over he had Adams caught by Hales close to the boundary for 73. In the course of the innings he had made his 1,000th List A run. By this time Notts had a Patel at each end, and not to be outdone Samit snared Chris Benham lbw for 8, leaving Hampshire 227 for 4 in the 33rd over.

The Hawks were keeping the rate above 7 an over and Sean Ervine carried on in the same vein, making a busy 31 off 35 balls; unusually for him without a single boundary. He was out in the 38th over, looking to slog Fletcher across the line. Dawson made 6, losing his wicket to Fletcher in the last over of the game, with Chris Tremlett finishing on 2 and Nic Pothas on 23.
Hampshire set Nottingham a total of 282 to win.

Hampshire made a bold decision to open the bowling with youngsters Hamza Riazuddin and spinner Danny Briggs and as early as the 7th over it looked like a masterstroke. Mark Wagh did manage to spectacularly hoist a Briggs delivery over the mid off rope towards the pavilion for a six but the very next ball he was walking that way himself having scored only 13. Briggs had cleaned bowled him to take his first ever List A wicket.

Riazuddin then sent Matthew Wood (18) packing when a short delivery deflected up off the bat for Jimmy Adams to make a stunning diving catch at point that left Nottinghamshire 36 for 2. Samit Patel and Alex Hales began shoring up the visitor’s innings with a couple of well-struck fours but Chris Tremlett and Sean Ervine came into the attack and the latter was an instant success by clean bowling Hales for 19 for his 150th List A wicket. This prompted Akhil Patel to join his elder brother at the crease.

In the 18th over the two Patels got into a strange mix up and Akhil was eventually run out by Adams’ quick thinking for just 6 runs. The visitors finally reached the 100 mark in the 21st over with a single from the remaining Patel. The next ball saw another wicket tumble when Ervine cleaned bowled Chris Read for 10 – his second wicket of the match.

Imran Tahir then got in with the act when Patel (28), attempting to slog, hit straight to Riazuddin at deep mid-wicket to leave Nottinghamshire 104 for 6. Ervine continued his devastating spell when he took out Luke Fletcher’s middle stump for just 3. Briggs then caught Darren Pattinson (5) off his own bowling after the batsman tamely knocked it back.

Andy Carter (7) skied Tahir for Tremlett to catch out on the boundary. Kevin O’Brien smacked a six over Tahir’s head before airing the next delivery to Nic Pothas to catch for a deserved Hampshire win, bowling Nottinghamshire out for 139. The Hawks won by 142 runs.

LVCC Hampshire v Durham Day 4

Hampshire came into the last day of this County Championship game against Durham looking to reach the 400 mark and with the fall of Chris Benham and nightwatchman David Griffiths last night, they only had 4 wickets in hand to achieve that goal.

Starting the day on 267 for 6, new man Sean Ervine laid down his intentions of picking up the pace with a huge six in the first complete over of the day off Scott Borthwick.

Ervine’s swashbuckling attitude demonstrates Hampshire’s perseverance to push on and brilliantly timed sweeps off Borthwick and then Liam Plunkett raised the home side’s run rate under a very cloudy Rose Bowl. Nic Pothas, resuming on 55, beautifully crafted a sweep shot down to the square leg rope for his first boundary of the day as the pair looked to build a big scoring partnership.

Hampshire won their third batting point when Ervine nipped Plunkett to third man in the day’s 9th over. However with Hampshire making good progress the umpires decided to stop play for bad light prompting an early lunch; Hampshire were 319 for 6.
Hampshire resumed their innings after Lunch when the umpires decided light was good enough to restart.

Pothas and Ervine managed to score runs freely, all be it fortuitously. The first over after lunch Ervine flashed hard outside his off stump and found the boundary through the gap between slips and gully from the bowling of Steve Harmison. Two overs later Pothas saw an inside edge race to the boundary again from Harmison.

In the 110th over Ervine ran a scampered two to reach his half century from just 56 deliveries, which included 7 fours and 1 maximum.

Hampshire’s captain Pothas (78) was dismissed by Ian Blackwell in the 112th over, when he attempted a big sweep only to see his off stump unhinged; leaving the home team on 345 for 7.
With overs ticking away, Hampshire gained their fourth batting point of the innings after Ervine ran a single off Blackwell to take the score past 350.

The 118th over saw Dominic Cork take the attack to Blackwell, hitting him through mid-on for two consecutive boundaries as the Home team chased after the final batting point.
Cork (24) then tried one elusive shot too many, when he attempted to guide a Harmison delivery over the slips only to be caught by wicketkeeper Phil Mustard.

Two balls later Ervine (67) was heading back to the pavilion after trying to hit Blackwell for a big shot on the leg-side, which resulted in a top edge and was caught behind, giving Durham maximum bowling points.

Hampshire were bowled out for 384 when Youngster Danny Briggs was dismissed by Blackwell for a second ball duck. The Durham all-rounder finished the innings with figures of 5 for 110.
Durham started the second innings with a lead of 55 and made their way without scare to 8 for 0 before the umpires took the players off for bad light.

The match ended in a draw after the players failed to return to the field resulting in Hampshire scoring 10 points and Durham 11. The result leaves Hampshire closer to safety with one game remaining away against fellow relegation strugglers Yorkshire.

LVCC Hampshire v Durham Day 3

Champions Durham had one wicket in hand going into this third day of the County Championship match against Hampshire. Resuming on 435 for 9, Steve Harmison and Scott Borthwick looked to add as many runs as possible but fortunately for the home side they lasted only 10 balls. David Griffiths trapped Harmison leg before for Durham to end their first innings on 439 all out.

Jimmy Adams and Liam Dawson began Hampshire’s innings positively. Harmison opened the attack for the visitors and it was a lively over. Adams nudged the first ball to cover for an easy single before Dawson guided a perfectly timed cover drive for the first boundary. The next ball saw Dawson edge a Harmison short delivery that fell tantalisingly short of third slip.In the 8th over spinner Ian Blackwell replaced the ineffective Mark Davies to attempt to decrease Hampshire’s run rate.

Adams and Dawson had found the rope on many occasions but with Durham’s aggressive field placements, they found their first wicket. Dawson, surrounded by five fielders, mistimed a Blackwell delivery that looped up for wicketkeeper Phil Mustard to make a diving catch. Dawson was looking in good form but he had to depart having scored 29.Blackwell picked up his second wicket quickly. Michael Lumb, trying to hit through cover, was trapped leg before for 6 reducing Hampshire to 72 for 2.

James Vince entered the fray looking to stabilise and build a partnership with Adams and his first boundary came after 9 overs with an excellent drive through extra cover.Durham started to implement spin from both ends with Borthwick joining Blackwell in attack as they looked for a further breakthrough before lunch and they found it. Borthwick seduced Vince (8) into playing a straight drive but the ball found an inside edge and then pad before being caught by Will Smith.

It left Hampshire 87 for 3 at lunch.

Durham continued with their spin attack after lunch and in the third over Adams made his 7th fifty of this Championship season, off 78 balls and with 6 fours. He wasn’t to last much longer, however, when on 57 he hit a Borthwick delivery straight to Harmison on the square leg boundary, bringing stand-in captain Nic Pothas to the crease on 114 for 4.

Initially runs were hard to come by for Pothas and number 5 batsman Chris Benham, the exception being Pothas hitting two spectacular fours in one over, the second straight back over bowler Blackwell’s head.But it was Benham’s afternoon and he too reached fifty off 78 balls and with 6 fours – his first in the 2009 Championship. His strokeplay was impressive and included a beautifully swept boundary off Borthwick as well as elegant cover drives. Pothas was happy to take the supporting role and at tea he had made 32 off 93 balls while Benham had charged ahead with 71 off 114.

Hampshire went in for tea on 207 for 4, their first batting point from this game securely in the bag.Straight after the interval Davies came into the attack for the third time to try to break the stubborn partnership between Pothas and Benham that had moved past 100 in the 69th over. Durham became more defensive in their fielding and runs became harder to find for the batsmen.

The visitors opted for the new ball as soon as possible to unleash the lethal ‘Grievous Bodily’ Harmison to try to end this immovable partnership. Apart from it being maiden, his first over accomplished little and it didn’t threaten with much authority.The next over saw Pothas taking advantage of a loose Blackwell delivery that he punished through cover for a boundary. With a single in the 83rd over Benham moved past to his own personal best First Class score of 95.

Pothas, in his 200th First Class game, made his 50 off 192 balls with 7 fours when he drove a Blackwell delivery down the ground to the ropes for a boundary.Benham then moved on to his maiden First Class century in the following over, off 185 balls with 10 fours, by running a quick three after playing to the mid off fence. Whilst on 100 Benham perished; he edged to Michael Di Venuto in the slips for Borthwick to claim his third wicket of the match on his County Championship debut.

Nightwatchman David Griffiths came to the crease to see out the day’s remaining overs. He did just that as he got out to Plunkett for a single, bringing the end of the day’s play; Pothas will resume tomorrow on 55 not out.

Hampshire finished the day on 267 for 6.

Match reporting for Hampshire CCC Website

FA Website

My university appeared on the FA website and funnily enough whilst watching the gripping television I notice me and two of my classmates appear.

Have a look yourself.

http://www.thefa.com/TheFACup/FACompetitions/TheFACup/NewsAndFeatures/2009/bristolrovers_southampton_041109.aspx