Hampshire Second XI v Sussex on 15th May 2007

A match ruined by the weather made for testing conditions for batsmen at the Rose Bowl.

Having lost the whole of the first day to the weather Hampshire batted first on a damp pitch and were indebted to Michael Carberry, whose watchful innings of 52 (131 balls, 1 six, 5 fours) was worth many a century on a more benign surface. It would have been a good workout for the Hampshire left hander against an experienced attack including the left armers Jason Lewry (2-23) and Chris Liddle (3-31) and the off spin of Saqlain Mushtaq and Ollie Raynor (3-18) as he endeavoured to return to the first team after an injury sustained on the England A tour of Bangladesh. Mitchell Stokes and Tom Burrows both battled to 24 but Hampshire collapsed from 120-4 to an inadequate looking 139 all out early on Day 3.

Hampshire's first innings score suddenly took on a more creditable size when Sussex found themselves 24-6 against the hostile bowling of David Griffiths (4-29), James Tomlinson (2-3) - who sadly limped off after 3.1 overs with a recurrence of his foot injury - and Billy Taylor (3-33). After lunch Saqlain (36) launched a counter-attack, but when his luck eventually ran out Sussex subsided to 86 all out.

With little time remaining to force a victory on a still tricky pitch Hampshire did well to smash 164-3 declared in 25 overs, thanks to Sean Ervine (46 in 43 balls, 2 sixes, 4 fours) and Greg Lamb (62* in 49 balls, 3 sixes, 3 fours); setting Sussex a theoretical target of 218 in 31 overs.

When Griffiths (7-3-7-3) tore through the Sussex top order after tea; reducing them to 10-3 with 25 overs still left in the day, Hampshire could sense an unexpected victory, but Thornely and Kemm held their nerve to force the draw.

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