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Hampshire vs Durham at Basingstoke


Leicestersaint
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Phillip Hughes signed for the County Championship run in. Not too shabby.

 

Very good signing in my opinion. Looked fantastic in his brief spell at middlesex and was the scapegoat due to his age during the ashes.

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Let me first confirm this was a cracker of a wicket. 4 centuries and a 99 is proof of that.

 

Mustard declaring last night when he did was a very positive decision to gain a result. They, like us, are in the relegation group. They are below us although they do have a game in hand.

 

Now the problem for Hampshire....How many runs should they score and how many overs should they leave? One important consideration was not losing wickets early on this morning and passing the initiative to Durham. It had to be a slow and steady start building momentum as the moning went on. Forget the weather predictions, that could not come into the equasion.

 

One of the difficulties was that on the first day in the mid session Hampshire scored 199-0 at well over 6 runs an over. On the third day Durham scored 174-2 in the same session again over 6 runs an over. On that basis Hampshire had to set a target of over 6 an over. That would mean circa 300 in about 45 overs. With the wicket not having deteriorated they were long odds on a win. Durham might have smashed it around and won. It they lost early wickets they could block out as the wicket was doing nothing. Hampshire could not really win and Mustard knew that at the declaration.

 

As it turned out the weather won but don't think the players were unaware of their responsibilities to the fans who turned out. They want to win for the supporters as much as we want them to but that will have to be another day.

 

Today was not about negativity but reality.

 

As for the wicket! Well done to the groundsman. The umpires were very complimentary. As good as anything they have stood on this season.

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