Hampshire Vs Middlesex: County Championship Day 1 Review

Hampshire welcomed Middlesex in the County Championship, with the hosts looking to claim another victory after their sublime display against Leicestershire.

Hampshire won the toss and captain James Vince decided to bat first.

Joe Weatherly and Ian Holland opened the batting for the home side, while Ethan Bamber and Toby Roland-Jones opened the bowling for the visitors.

It took seven overs for Hampshire to reach the boundary, doing it twice in consecutive deliveries, when Weatherly timed a nice shot down the legside for four. Then, frustratingly for Bamber, edging one past the slip cordon for four more.

After the eighth over, Middlesex wicketkeeper, John Simpson decided to step up to the wickets, as they soon realised there was not much carry in the wicket.

Four overs later, it produced the first wicket of the day, as Weatherly seemed to lose his balance slightly, ending up out of his crease from Bamber’s delivery and Simpson reacted with fast hands to take the bails off. Tom Alsop came in at three, with the score at 26-1.

From then on out Hampshire really took control of the rest of the first session, Alsop came in and produced some of the finest shots of the day for the Royals with a lovely straight drive and a cover drive both reaching the boundary for fours.

Former England bowler Steven Finn came into the attack after the first wicket, replacing Roland-Jones but had a torrid time of it, bowling three no balls in his opening five overs, which led to him be subsequently replaced by Roland-Jones.

Hampshire went into the break 77-1 with batsman Alsop on 19 (off 52) and opener Holland on 35 (off 95).

After Finn’s poor morning session spell, he rolled back the years with a delivery that forced a top edge off Alsop’s bat and it led to a straightforward catch for Nathan Sowter. Alsop produced some fine shots in his time at the crease but left it making 19 runs off 53 deliveries.

Holland was dismissed for a solid 64 by Roland-Jones and caught behind in the slip cordon by Sam Robson.

The loss of that wicket brought Hampshire’s star man and captain, Vince into the crease after his superb knock of 231 in Hampshire’s innings and 105 run victory over Leicestershire.

However, Vince couldn’t continue his fine run of form, as he went cheaply for nine runs. Martin Andersson with his first wicket of the day in his eight over, the delivery was caught well in the slips by Middlesex captain Stephen Esknazi.

It was a good first hour of the afternoon session from the visitors as they claimed the wickets of Alsop (19), Holland (64) and Vince(9), putting Hampshire 143-4.

Hampshire clawed back the rest of the afternoon session with what looked to be a promising partnership building between Liam Dawson and Sam Northeast as the pair a 60 run fifth wicket partnership together, with Northeast reaching his half century in 80 deliveries, putting the hosts 191-4, 20 minuets before the tea interval.

Middlesex then took two quick wickets five minuets later. First to go was Dawson (22) as he chipped Finn’s delivery up to mid-wicket, a simple catch for Andersson.

Quickly followed was Lewis McManus, as he misread the googly from Sowter and was cleaned bowled by the leg spinner.

Hampshire ended the afternoon session 202-6, with Northeast (55) and Kyle Abbott (0) at the crease.

The evening session looked a difficult one of the Hampshire batsman, as cloud cover quickly came in and the lights were on for the majority of the session.

It took Middlesex half an hour into the evening session to get the seventh wicket and a key wicket one too, as they got Northeast (63) caught behind by Simpson, bowled by Andersson.

Mason Crane (19) and Abbott (20) put on a solid display heading towards the close of the days play with Hampshire 252-7.

Bamber, who had an impressive first session, took his second wicket of the match forcing Mason Crane to edge down to the slips and was caught down low by Robson.

The Middlesex bowling unit worked well together sharing the wickets around with Rolland-Jones and Sowter getting one each.

The standouts of the attack were Bamber, Andersson and Finn getting two wickets each, despite Finn’s poor first five overs, he found his rhythm quickly after being brought back into the bowling attack.

The day ended two overs short due to bad light stopped play, which left Hampshire on 281-8 with Brad Wheal (11) and Abbott (35)  at the crease, both side’s claiming two points each on day one, setting up an evenly poised County Championship game.

 

Hampshire XI: Joe Weatherly, Ian Holland, Tom Alsop, Sam Northeast, James Vince ©, Liam Dawson, Lewis McManus, Kyle Abbott, Mason Crane, Brad Wheal, Muhammad Abbas.

Middlesex XI : Sam Robson,  Max Holden, Nick Gubbins, Stephen Esknazi ©, Robbie White, Martin Anderson, John Simpson (WK) , Toby Roland-Jones, Nathan Sowter, Ethan Bamber, Steven Finn

 

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