County Championship 2025. Division 1. Hampshire v Somerset. 18th, 19th, 20th and 21st April. Southampton.

Hampshire. M.G. Stoneman, F.S. Middleton, N.R.T. Gubbins, T.J. Prest, T.E. Albert, B.C. Brown (c) (w), L.A, Dawson, B.R. Hampton, J.K. Fuller, K.J. Abbott, B.T.J. Wheal.

Somerset. A.M. Vaughan, S.R. Dickson, T.A. Lammonby, T.B. Abell, T. Banton, J.E.K. Rew (c) (w), K.L. Aldridge, C. Overton, M. Pretorius, M.J. Leach, A.R.J. Ogborne.

Overnight. Somerset 184. Hampshire 194 for 3. Hampshire lead by ten runs with seven second innings wickets standing.

Third day – Somerset survive to fight another day

When Ben Brown pushed Tom Lammonby through midwicket for four, perhaps with a bit of help from a leading edge, and registered Hampshire’s 250 with only four wickets down, a Hampshire supporter behind me said to his friend, “We should get 400.” It was one of those hostages to fortune that cricket supporters often regret emitting the second after they have emitted them. Nick Gubbins had not long fallen leg before wicket to Lammonby for 82 after a partnership of 125 with Liam Dawson from a ball short of 40 overs. The partnership was 76 runs old at the start of play, and Gubbins and Dawson had pushed, turned, guided and struck the ball around the ground seemingly at will. Any thought of Somerset batting again at the start of the afternoon session would have seemed fanciful.

When, in the second over of the day, Tom Abell shouted, “Come on Craig O,” and Liam Dawson immediately drove Overton, bowling from the Pavilion End, through the covers for four he took Hampshire to 200 for 3, 16 runs ahead. At the end of his next over, Overton had figures of 20-6-37-0, less than two runs an over, but crucially, no wickets. His opening spell on the first day apart, he had bowled with discipline, accuracy and rhythm. Hampshire had responded with disciplined batting, carefully selecting the ball to attack, seeing him off, to use a cricketing term. Against Alfie Ogborne, and at times Kasey Aldridge, they were more assertive. They were persistent too in the placement of strokes for singles, taking advantage of largely defensive fields.

In the fifth over of the day, there was perhaps a key moment. Dawson pulled the first ball of an Ogborne over, bowled from the Northern End, sharply towards and above Abell at midwicket. Abell stretched, knocked the ball up, but failed to catch it as it fell. It was a difficult chance but one Abell might have taken nineteen times out of twenty. Somerset supporters must have held their breath as the ball flew and let out a sigh as it fell. There could not fail to be comparisons made with the astonishing catch which Gubbins had taken at midwicket in the Somerset innings to remove Tom Banton on the first day. Catches win matches as they say. The drop seemed to spur Hampshire on. Three balls later, Dawson drove Ogborne straight of mid-on for four and immediately followed it with a drive just backward of Abell, now at point, for four more. The next ball ran off Dawson’s pads and crossed the boundary with a chasing fielder in hot pursuit. The ball seemed to be firmly in the fielder’s sights, but he gave way to Archie Vaughan, who was running along the boundary to intercept. Then Vaughan’s dive fell short to chuckles from some Hampshire supporters. With Hampshire now 33 runs ahead and still seven wickets standing, Somerset’s position was becoming decidedly shaky.

Shakier still as Overton finished his spell to be replaced by Tom Lammonby, Somerset’s latter day fill-in bowler. It felt like Somerset had decided to conduct a holding operation with the new ball ten overs away. Hampshire, Gubbins in particular, pounced. Ogborne immediately found himself in the firing line, two fours and ten runs in total coming from one over. Lammonby was cut past backward point for four more in the next over, six in total from that over. Aldridge replaced Ogborne, and Gubbins and Dawson scored off every ball with apparent ease, five singles and a two. The Hampshire lead passed 50 and one continuous conversation behind me apart, the ground settled into a tense, or perhaps expectant, quiet. Four hundred was beginning to look like a conservative estimate.

Somerset had battled hard since the start against some obdurate Hampshire batting, but Hampshire were drawing away. Until, suddenly, from nowhere, Lammonby’s spell changed the feel of the morning. A ball to the left-handed Gubbins, delivered from over the wicket, targeting leg stump and swinging away a trace beat Gubbins’ desperate jab and struck the pad in front of middle. Hampshire 243 for 4. Lead 59. Four overs later, Dawson attempted to cut Lammonby but the ball rose off the edge and flew straight to Vaughan at backward point. Hampshire 256 for 5. Dawson 72. In Lammonby’s next over, an inswinger struck the right-handed Brett Hampton on the pad. Hampshire 256 for 6. Hampton 0. Lead 72. Suddenly, the prospect of 400 was rapidly retreating.

There was a cold chill on the air in the Colin Ingleby-Mackenzie Stand next to the Pavilion, but there was also a new bounce in the step of the Somerset players. Behind me, despite Hampshire’s fortunes having taken a knock, the conversation that had continued all morning carried blissfully on. In the middle, things moved on apace. Ben Brown and James Fuller pushed for runs. The ball after Hampton was out, Fuller drove Lammonby through the off side to the Shane Warne Stand boundary. The new ball was taken immediately it was available, but 13 runs, including two boundaries, came from its first two overs taking the Hampshire lead to 90. A quick single followed driven by an emphatic shout of, “Yes!” When Overton replaced Aldridge at the Northern End, Fuller shouted, “Two! Two!” sending Brown and himself scampering up and down the pitch. Then, Pretorius who had taken the new ball at the Pavilion End struck at Hampshire. He took his third wicket of the innings. Pitching just outside Fuller’s off stump he forced Fuller to play. Fuller edged straight to Overton at second slip. Hampshire 280 for 7. Fuller 15. Lead 96. Two overs later, another wicket, Pretorius’s fourth. Toby Albert, batting at nine because of his injury, was leg before wicket playing back. Hampshire 286 for 7. Albert 3. Lead 102.

Despite Brown and Fuller’s short foray, it had been quite a fightback from Somerset, but with Hampshire over a hundred ahead, their last two wickets brought another twist. Kyle Abbott, so often a thorn in Somerset’s side, struck Overton for three boundaries in an over, two emphatic drives which brought cheers from the Hampshire crowd, and a pull to deep square leg. Abbott followed up by driving Pretorius through the covers for another four before hitting out once to often and being caught behind tying to hook. Hampshire 306 for 9. Abbott 20 from 11 balls in 8 eight minutes. Lead 125. Five wickets for Pretorius. Now, Brown drove Pretorius for six over long off. Brad Wheal took up cudgels too, driving Overton through the covers for four before edging an attempted flick to leg wide of third slip for yet another boundary. Then, at the end of the over, the umpires spoke to James Rew. The reason was not clear from beyond the boundary, but Overton walked briskly past Rew and left the field to be replaced at the Northern End by Aldridge. Hampshire 139 ahead.

Eventually, Ogborne went through a Wheal defensive stroke and uprooted his off stump which cartwheeled halfway towards Overton, now back on the field, at second slip. Hampshire 334. Wheal 19 from 16 balls. Brown 30 not out from 51 balls in five minutes over an hour and a half. Hampshire lead 152. That was far more than would have been comfortable for Somerset, but less than it might have been when Hampshire were 243 for 3 and some way short of the 400 hoped for by the Hampshire supporter earlier in the day. The end of the innings brought lunch, delayed by awaiting the fall of the tenth wicket. And then, for the second day in succession, a walk to the middle, and for the second day in succession, a Hampshire supporter new to the experience, “This is the first time I have ever been out here. Never seen it (the pitch) before.” As I walked around the ground it became apparent that many of the Somerset supporters at the match on the first two days were no longer present. For a determined supporter, perhaps because Southampton is close enough to Somerset for a long day trip.

Somerset began their second innings in slightly warmer temperatures than had hitherto been felt in the shade and amid a sense of tension in the crowd, for Hampshire, despite Somerset’s fightback, had the match in the palm of their hands. The two supporters who had chatted all morning behind me had gone and their absence made the silence of the tension almost audible. In the middle, Abbott, Northern End, and Wheal began against Archie Vaughan and Sean Dickson. The smoothest of drives through extra cover for four from Vaughan in Abbott’s first over apart, Somerset began cautiously, the next boundary not coming until the sixth over when Vaughan swivelled as if in slow motion and gently pulled the ball to the long leg boundary.

A swish of a drive at thin air, and a four past the two slips, both off Wheal, from an attempted leave from Dickson apart, he and Vaughan continued their cautious approach. There were two on drives for four, one consummately leaned into, from Dickson. Otherwise there seemed to be little threat from the bowling and Somerset gradually accumulated runs. After 15 overs, with a glance for four from Dickson off Fuller, who had early replaced Abbott at the Northern End, Somerset were 41 for 0. Less than three an over. There was no threat from the bowlers, but Dickson was displaying a worrying, for Somerset supporters, habit of running a yard or two up the pitch and then calling, “No!” The gap with Hampshire was now 111 runs and closing, with still ten wickets standing, and the tension was such that the distant roar of the M27, about a mile away, could be heard constantly.

It was noticeable, after the comments made to me at Hove about word spreading quickly around the circuit about Vaughan’s propensity to hook that, even with Somerset’s slow scoring rate, Hampshire were bowling with both a long leg and a deep square leg for him. Abbott, returning at the Pavilion End, kept the ball up to him and was twice driven through extra cover for four, loud applause for the first coming from the Somerset dressing room about 40 yards to my left. The short ball came in the next over from the lesser pace of Fuller, Vaughan duly pulled, got under the ball and Hampton accepted the catch on the boundary. The perfect set up if that is what it was. Somerset 50 for 1. Deficit 102. Vaughan 24 having nicely played himself in for an hour and a quarter. The light had been dipping for a while and, as if in celebration of Vaughan’s wicket, the floodlights came on.

From there, 15 overs remained to tea and Somerset added 41 more runs. Still less than three an over. In that time the ball crossed the boundary three times, twice off the outside edge, once close enough for someone to shout, “Catch,” Lammonby the escapee. With seven overs to tea, Hampshire turned to spin in the form of Dawson and Tom Prest, perhaps to avoid the players being taken off the field because of the still deteriorating light. Another, this time huge, swish and miss from Dickson with his score on 43 brought the comment, “I think he was trying to go to his fifty with a seven there.” Eventually, the umpires did take the players off early for bad light. Although they came back after tea, Dawson and Prest still bowled. After four overs in which the bowlers made no impact and Somerset added a further 12 runs, Hampshire prepared to bowl pace and play was suspended for the day with Somerset’s deficit down to 49. “They didn’t want us to reduce the deficit any further,” suggested one Somerset supporter. Dickson at least, had played one of his best Championship innings at the top of the order for some time and Somerset, having shown considerable grit with both bat and ball, had survived to fight another day.

Close. Somerset 184 and 103 for 1. Hampshire 336 (N.R.T. Gubbins 82, L.A. Dawson 72, T.J. Prest 42, M. Pretorius 5-64, T. Lammonby 3-26). Somerset trail by 49 runs with nine second innings wickets standing.