IT WOULD have
been nice to
report a week full
of ups' to start the
season.
Unfortunately, cricket
being the great leveller'
it is, just as our week was
starting to look very good,
we were hit by a couple of
downs' as the weather
interrupted our progress
against Sussex and
Somerset got the better of
us at Taunton.
In the build-up to the
Sussex match, there had
been a fair amount of chat
about Sussex's new Kolpak
signing, Australian
Ryan Harris, an extremely
talented bowler and
someone we knew little
about.
I imagine Sussex had a
bit to talk about regarding
our new antipodean fast
bowler and, as it turned
out, whatever was said in
either camp proved fairly
fruitless for very different
reasons.
Harris had to be left
out of the side on the
morning of the game as it
transpired his Kolpak status
(i.e. not an overseas
player) was questionable
following the news he was
joining the Queensland
Bulls for the Australian
domestic season as a
native player.
Shane Bond rubbed
salt into the wound - the
irony being the uncertainty
surrounding his availability
to play for us a few
weeks back - as he tore
through the Sussex middle
and lower order. It had
not been easy prior to his
demolition job and, at tea,
we were staring down the
barrel of 400-plus.
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Fortunately, the second
new ball arrived and
Bondy used it to phenomenal
effect to finish with
7-66 (including 5-5 in 17
balls) as Sussex collapsed
from 317-4 to 332 all out.
His spell was one of the
best I've seen as the
Sussex batsmen had no
answer to his combination
of pace and lethal inswing.
Sussex's Ragheb Aga
was given a nasty first ball
welcome, on championship
debut, as an
attempted yorker slipped
out and a 90-plus-mph
beamer screamed past his
head.The next ball was on
the money, though, as a
perfect inswinging yorker
ripped out his middle
stump.
Unsurprisingly, 10 and
11 did not fancy it too
much, leaving Bondy with
the best figures on
Hampshire debut since a
gentleman in 1899 managed
eight wickets -
apparently. I imagine
that's where any similarity
in their bowling ends!
In reply, we recovered
from a couple of hiccups
thanks mainly to Michael
Lumb (82) as a number of
us got good starts but
could not kick on to get a
big score. We were pretty
well set at 319-7 when
rain came to foil any
chance of a result.
Despite the game ending
uneventfully, there
were some really positive
signs over the four days -
most of the top order
looked solid and got away
to decent starts while
Chris Tremlett and James
Tomlinson bowled some
excellent spells and got
vital overs under their
belts.
More importantly, the
greater sense of team
spirit we had hoped
would surface was evident
in the buzz prior to
the bell on the first day
and the camaraderie in
the dressing room as we
batted.
We suffered a setback
on Sunday, however, as we
struggled to recover from
a poor start against
Somerset - Nic Pothas
and Dimi Mascarenhas
rescued us from a mostly
self-inflicted tricky situation
as the top order
failed to get going.
A fine start with the
ball from Dimi, Bondy
and Chris Tremlett put
us in a good position as
Somerset struggled initially,
too.
However, Taunton is a
notoriously hard ground
to defend and, despite
reducing then to 91-4, we
were unable to get the
important fifth wicket as
Ian Blackwell and
Hampshire old boy John
Francis added 132 to see
them over the line.
The seconds also
played in the week and
would have won easily if
the weather hadn't intervened.
Chris Benham smashed
a ton before lunch, Sean
Ervine (188) continued
the run-fest and Kevin
Latouf was run out just
shy of his hundred as we
scored nearly 450 runs on
day one.
Hamza Riazuddin and
Dave Griffiths took four
wickets each to bowl
Sussex out for around 160
but, despite Hamza taking
four more wickets in
the second innings, rain
took enough time out of
the game to enable
Sussex to salvage a draw.
Hamza will definitely
feature again through the
season, possibly even at a
higher level.
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