Hampshire Secure Second Championship Win Inside Three Days

Carberry and McKenzie star with the bat as Hampshire beat Kent by an innings and 111 runs.

Hampshire vs. Kent
County Championship Division One
Monday 5th – Thursday 8th July 2010
The Rose Bowl

Summary
Hampshire beat Kent  by an innings and 111 runs
Kent: 251 & 191
Hampshire: 553-7 declared

Hampshire wrapped up victory in this County Championship match against Kent at the Rose Bowl within three days.

A superb batting display which saw the home side declare on 553-7 with some amazing individual performances from the likes of Carberry (158) and McKenzie (113) which left them with a huge lead of 302.

The batting was matched by the bowling as Hampshire, again, dismissed the visitors for a low second innings score of 191; the pick of the bowlers being skipper Dominic Cork who finished with innings figures of 2-16 and match figures of 7-66.

It's Hampshire's second victory of the season and lifts them off the bottom of the table to 7th.

View the full scorecard here

Hampshire started day three of their LV= County Championship clash against Kent looking to build on their 157 run lead over the visitors after Michael Carberry’s and Neil McKenzie’s century heroics on day two.
 
Hampshire passed the 500 mark shortly before lunch as Pothas and Ervine reached their 50 partnership extending the home side's lead to 250.  
 
They then declared shortly after the lunch break, but not before reaching 553-7. Sean Ervine finished unbeaten on a score of 56, assisted by Dominic Cork who was also unbeaten on 15. The declaration gave Hampshire a huge lead of 302. 

 

Click on the image above to see highlights of Wednesday's play

Kent’s reply got off to a bad start when their opener and captain Rob Key was forced to retire hurt after taking a delivery on the finger from the bowling of Cork.
 
The falling wickets of Blake (13) and Bandara (12), really pushed the home side on towards a victory; the visitors really struggling at 145-6 and still a massive 157 runs behind the hosts.
 
The confirmation that Key would not return served as a boost to Hampshire who the quickly dismissed Simon Cook for 16.

David Balcombe bowled Amjad Khan to wrap up this superb innings victory for the Hampshire side. They result inside three days earns the team a deserved rest before they look to puch on in their bid to qualify for the quarter finals of the t20 Cup with a win against Somerset at Taunton on Friday (click here to read a preview).

Words: Ryan Day; pictures by Rhys Cleary

Day Two

Summary
Hampshire lead by 157 runs
Kent: 251 ao
Hampshire: 408 for 5

Following on from captain Cork’s fantastic display  yesterday in the LV=County Championship Division One match with Kent at The Rose Bowl, Michael Carberry followed his skipper’s resounding lead with a fine batting display.

Carberry and his 4th wicket partner Neil McKenzie wowed the crowd and sent records tumbling. Both men struck centuries for Hampshire, and both were major contributors in breaking not one, not two....but four club records.

Solid and stubborn defence of his wicket saw Carberry pick up several boundaries early on – and his patience came to fruition in the 20th over when he reached his half century by striking the ball to deep square leg and crossing the long boundary.

Tomlinson was caught behind in the 8th for 11 runs, but McKenzie’s arrival signalled the start of a batting partnership with Carberry which would pass the 100 mark soon after lunch. Just one over later, McKenzie reached his half century with a shot to gully resulting in a single, taking Hampshire to a healthy 181 for 3.

The hosts ensured their first batting bonus point in the 40th thanks to that man Carberry. He scored his 81st run of the innings, lifting the ball past cover point just outside the reach of James Hockley. At 200 for 3, Hampshire were trailing by 51 runs with 7 wickets remaining.

Carberry well and truly earned his third century of the season in the 50th over of the day (62nd of the innings) with a blistering sweep to point boundary which left Simon Cook and Sam Northeast stuck in no man’s land with no chance of prevention.

McKenzie struck a six in the 58th over of the day, and immediately followed it up with a four, nutmegging Northeast along its way to the boundary. With 92 to his name, suddenly it appeared that it was more a question of when - not if - the second Hampshire century of the day would be reached. He ran two in the 61st of the day to reach that century, which was met with rapturous applause from fans in attendance.

The end of the afternoon session saw Hampshire sitting pretty on 312 for 3, with records tumbling around the beautiful new Rose Bowl.

 

Click on the link above to see highlights of Tuesday's action

McKenzie was caught by Hockley at first slip, ending an entertaining innings for the 34 year old – returning to the pavilion with 113. The Carberry / McKenzie partnership broke the record for the most successful 4th wicket partnership against Kent home and away, the final tally of 254 beating the previous record of 232 set by Crawley & Johnson in 2002 at Canterbury.

After a great spell of runbuilding, Carberry thoroughly etched his name into the Hampshire record books by running a single in the 74th over to reach the 150 run mark – the first time a Hampshire player has done so against Kent at The Rose Bowl.

Just moments later, another boundary from Carberry put Hampshire on 346 for 4 – beating their previous high score against Kent at The Rose Bowl of 345 (also set in 2002). Unfortunately, however, his reign of dominance over Kent’s bowlers was brought to an end when he edged a Robbie Joseph delivery, being caught by Geraint Jones, leaving the pitch to standing applause from the crowd for his 158 which included 23 fours.

The hosts soon reached the 350 mark though, meaning a fourth bonus batting point to go with the three bowling points obtained during Day One, and this led to a spell of slow but sure score building from 6th wicket partnership James Vince and Nic Pothas.

In the 92nd over of the day, Pothas swept the ball to fine leg to give Hampshire their 400th run of the innings – earning them a fifth batting point, and thus securing both maximum batting and bowling bonus points during the first innings with a whole 5 overs to spare before the threshold was reached.

At the end of the day’s play Hampshire lead by 157 runs with 5 wickets remaining. James Vince and Nic Pothas will begin day three’s proceedings on 26 and 36 respectively, the partnership total standing on 62.

Words by Jamie McLean, pictures by Rhys Cleary.
 

Day One

Summary: Day One
Kent: 251
Hampshire: 51-2

Away from the hurly burly of twenty20 The Rose Bowl crowd clearly expected a quiet day basking in the sun. And indeed, until forty minutes before tea that’s exactly what happened – then Dominic Cork proceeded to blow the visitors away.

Cork’s morning had not started well when he lost the toss to Kent captain Robert Key, who immediately and obviously elected to bat. Then he was upstaged by opening bowling partner James Tomlinson who started the morning by bowling two maiden overs. But Cork’s was the first wicket when, in the 11th over, he took an athletic return catch to dismiss Key for 17.

At lunch Kent were 114 for 3, with Geraint Jones caught behind off Sean Ervine for 11 and Martin van Jaarsveld caught and bowled by Danny Briggs in the first over of his spell. After the break Joe Denly and Sam Northeast continued building their solid 74 run partnership until Denly was caught behind off the bowling of David Balcombe for 67. In his next over Balcombe’s pace did for Northeast as well when McKenzie snared a catch at second slip just moments after the youngster reached his 50.

 

After tea it took a while for Hampshire to clean up the Kent tail as Amjad Khan and Alex Blake offered stubborn resistance. In the end Blake fell to Briggs (naturally Cork took the catch) for 31 and Khan fended Cork’s second new ball delivery to Balcombe for 21. Cork’s 50 for 5 had ripped the heart from the Kent innings which finished on 251.

But when Hampshire started their reply the captain’s dream rapidly turned into a nightmare when James Adams gloved the first ball he faced to Northeast at short leg. While it would be wrong to say the pitch was full of demons, there was some movement and Khan and Joseph continued to make things difficult for the Hampshire batsmen and in the 6th over a Joseph delivery lifted on Liam Dawson and he could only edge to van Jaarsveld in the slips for 6.

Michael Carberry took the Kent onslaught in his stride and finished on 22 not out, alongside night watchman Tomlinson who was, as ever, staunch in defence. At the close Hampshire were 51 for 2, the Kent bowlers having amassed an astonishing 21 extras in 13 overs.

Words by Jane Cable, pictures by Rhys Cleary

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