Hampshire lead Worcestershire by a single point in Division Two of the LV= County Championship after both sides recorded convincing wins in their 11th round matches.
Hampshire needed less than three days to beat Essex in Southampton as the visitors’ batting collapsed twice. Hampshire’s first innings total of 286, in which no-one reached 50, should have been nowhere near sufficient to record a 470-run win but, thanks to James Vince, Will Smith and Kyle Abbott, it was.
Abbott took five for 44 as Essex were routed for 121, with Vince then further cementing his place as England man-in-waiting with a career-best 240 off just 222 balls - his maiden double-hundred. He and former Durham skipper Smith amassed an incredible 387 - breaking a century old record - for the Hampshire third-wicket as Essex were set an impossible 606 in the fourth innings. They could manage only 135 as Abbott again struck, this time with three for 23.
Vince, who became the first man this season to 1000 Championship runs during his epic innings, spoke to the club website after the game.
“It was a great win,” he said. “To beat Essex inside three days was a great effort from everyone. I got through a tricky bit early in my innings. I was a little bit lucky. It got a bit easier when the sun came out but I was just trying to capitalise on anything that was not in a good area. I tried to be positive and it paid off.”
James Vince: First man to 1000 runs
Worcestershire also had big third innings to thank for their big win over Leicestershire. The match was evenly poised at the halfway stage, with Josh Cobb hitting 63 to help the Foxes gain a modest lead after Alexei Kervezee had hit a century.
Daryl Mitchell and Tom Fell then took the game away from the home side with a second-wicket stand worth 178. Mitchell made 120 - his 18th first-class ton - while former Oxford MCCU player Fell recorded his maiden three-figure score prior to falling for 124. Fluent fifties from Kervezee and 19 year-old Tom Kohler-Cadmore then allowed the Pears to declare at 444 for eight and so set a winless Leicestershire 404 to win.
With Saeed Ajmal in the visitors’ attack it was always a tall order and they spluttered to 169 as the Pakistani notched figures if six for 19. Greg Smith and Angus Robson did put on 50 for the first-wicket, while Dan Redfern hit 39 from number four but wicket fell regularly throughout the second half of the run chase.
Glamorgan defeated Kent by an innings to move up to fourth. Michael Hogan took 10 wickets - five in each innings - as Kent were bowled out for 253 and then 263 despite half-centuries from Rob Key, Darren Stevens and Adam Ball.
The Welsh side made 527 in their only innings, Jacques Rudolph and skipper Mark Wallace began things with a second-wicket stand of 181 before Wallace was removed for 82 and Rudolph departed not long after for 103. Chris Cooke (96) and Jim Allenby (100) then picked up where their team-mates had left off. The duo combined to add 204 for the fifth-wicket, with Graham Wagg the rubbing salt into the wounds with 66 from number seven. Highly-rated off-spinner Adam Riley recorded marathon figures of 42-6-157-5 for the visitors.
Surrey required less than six overs on day four to record a 10-wicket thrashing of Derbyshire and move up to third. Centuries from Zafar Ansari and Steven Davies allowed Surrey to make 421 after routing Derbyshire for 153 on day one. 19 year-old South-African born Tom Curran - son of Zimbabwe legend Kevin - returned from exam leave to take five for 51.
Derbyshire did show more fight in their second innings but they were always facing an uphill struggle and could set Surrey a target of only 21 in the fourth innings. David Wainwright top-scored with an unbeaten 56, while spinners Gareth Batty and Ansari were made to work hard for four-wicket hauls.
| Teams | Mat | Won | Lost | Tied | Draw | Aban | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hampshire | 9 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 5 | 0 | 139 |
| Worcestershire | 9 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 5 | 0 | 138 |
| Surrey | 9 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 5 | 0 | 97 |
| Glamorgan | 8 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 5 | 0 | 96 |
| Essex | 9 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 6 | 0 | 87 |
| Gloucestershire | 8 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 4 | 0 | 80 |
| Kent | 8 | 1 | 3 | 0 | 4 | 0 | 71 |
| Derbyshire | 8 | 1 | 3 | 0 | 4 | 0 | 67 |
| Leicestershire | 8 | 0 | 4 | 0 | 4 | 0 | 61 |
Daniel Grummitt
He worked for CricketWorld.com for almost three years, leading their county and domestic cricket coverage and contributing to a book about the 2012 ICC World Twenty20, before joining the hugely ambitious World Cricket Badger early in 2014.
The first Test that he remembers watching was on Channel 4 - back before the ECB marginalised potential future fans by selling the TV rights to Sky Sports - when England beat Pakistan by an innings and nine runs at Lord’s.
Besides a passion for domestic cricket, he also has an unexplainable interest in all things Zimbabwe cricket!
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