Hampshire’s batsmen took the view that slow but steady wins the race during a hard-fought opening day against the lately crowned champions, Yorkshire. Jimmy Adams led an obdurate first-innings display for a county battling hard against relegation with 52, while the middle-order pair, Will Smith and Liam Dawson, contributed 46 and 47 not out respectively.
Yorkshire’s attack also worked tirelessly and on another day could have had more reward than two wickets for Jack Brooks and one apiece for Tim Bresnan and Steve Patterson. Their highly rated 17-year-old seamer, Matthew Fisher, was impressive during 16 cheap overs in which he conceded only 24 runs having come into the team for Ryan Sidebottom. He has even had to skip A-level studies at Easingwold School near York to play.
Hampshire started their penultimate fixture second bottom in Division One and 11 points behind their closest rivals, Sussex and Somerset.
Their approach proved effective, although it was precarious. Given the speed of their run-rate, less than three runs per over, they were also courting trouble against county cricket’s most envied attack, even if it was shorn of the rested Sidebottom.
They were well placed at 181 for three midway through the evening session. But when Smith was caught behind down the leg side off Brooks, another couple of quick wickets would have put them back to square one. As it was, they managed to steady things, thanks to Dawson and Sean Ervine.
Ervine showed more intent than any of his colleagues during his brief stay at the crease and he will begin day two on 26 off 25 balls, including five fours. He hit three of those in four balls off Patterson the over before the fourth delay for rain ended proceedings shortly after 5pm.
Faced with having to bat on a green-looking pitch when Andrew Gale won the toss, Hampshire showed plenty of the resistance that earned them a crucial draw against Somerset at Taunton last week, in which Adams scored a second-innings century. They have a realistic chance of winning this match should the weather play ball during the next few days.
Adams and his opening partner, Michael Carberry, laid a platform with a 74-run stand after play started half an hour late following overnight rain. After Patterson enticed Adams into edging a full ball to first slip in mid-afternoon Smith and Dawson shared 72 for the fourth wicket. Despite the assistance on offer for the seamers, Yorkshire admitted at close that they expected the pitch to do more.
