GARETH Berg believes Hampshire will be challenging at the top end of the LV County Championship next season.

Hampshire’s Player of the Year played a key role in the Great Escape, contributing 672 runs at 32 and 42 wickets at 28.11, writes Simon Walter.

Only Fidel Edwards took more wickets for Hampshire and he finished the season 12th in the Championship’s Most Valuable Player rankings.

Not bad for a 34 year-old who had not played since April 2014 because of a freak shoulder infection that resulted in Middlesex cancelling his contract.

“I was hoping for 600 runs at over 30 as well as 40 wickets so to reach both targets was very pleasing,” he said.

“One thing I never achieved at Middlesex was an economy rate of less than three an over so I was also very pleased to go at 2.7.

“I kept it tight, picked up wickets where I could and let Fidel blow teams away at the other end.”

Berg pinpointed two of his performances as key to Hampshire’s improbable survival.

The first was against Sussex at Hove in June.

Having taken 4-67, he made a run-a-ball 99 in a crucial stand of 165 with Adam Wheater to set up the first win of the season, by six wickets.

“The partnership with Wheats put us in a good position to go hard at them in the second innings,” said Berg.

Batting at ten in the crucial last game at Trent Bridge, he made 72 out of a ninth-wicket stand of 123 with Ryan McLaren before bowling Samit Patel and Riki Wessels in quick succession to spark Notts’ collapse from 127-2 to 185 all out.

“The last game was obviously crucial,” he said. “We’d spent a lot of time in the dirt so me and Macca tried to stay in as long as possible.

“He’s a fantastic player, he doesn’t get flustered and was quite happy to let me score quickly at the other end.”

Berg and Edwards, who flew back to Barbados on Sunday, were the only players who were not on the Hampshire bus when the Great Escape was confirmed.

“Living in Surrey, I tend to drive a lot so had my own little celebration in the car on the way back,” smiled Berg who has a tattoo to commemorate the promotion-clinching runs he once hit for Middlesex - but will not be celebrating the Great Escape with any body art.

“I thought we had a good enough squad to compete at the start of the season so to find ourselves in a struggle was disappointing,” he said.

Berg is confident Hampshire will be challenging at the top end of division one next year.

He added: “Having played a lot in both divisions I wanted to stay where the best players and we  showed that we are good enough to beat the best.

"If we’d had a full four-day game against Yorkshire we’d have beaten them.

“We’ve got to be of the mindset that if it takes us a day and a half to get 400 so be it.”