Cricket / County Championship: Hampshire are ripped apart

Hampshire . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 158

Derbyshire . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .174-2

THE UPS and downs of cricket were well illustrated here yesterday. Having arrived on a high from their Benson and Hedges Cup triumph at Lord's over the weekend, Hampshire returned to ground level with a resounding thump and a clatter of wickets.

Running second in the Championship and looking to close the gap on Essex, they were not exactly doubled up with laughter after Derbyshire had ripped them apart for a solitary bonus point.

Devon Malcolm set the ball rolling in the 57th over by taking 3 for 0 in 5 deliveries. This was no terror track at the United Services Ground, though the ball did shift about a bit when the sun broke through - and the breakthrough reached epidemic proportions with Hampshire losing their last six wickets for a miserable 15 runs.

Out cricket is taking on a new meaning in this neck of the woods and producing remarkably similar figures. When Hampshire ventured down the road from their Southampton headquarters to Bournemouth last month they were rolled over for 80 in their second innings by Essex, who won by 79 runs. On that inauspicious occasion, eight men departed the crease for 45 in 17 overs; here, eight went for 43 in 20.

Derbyshire, upon spying a green wicket and winning the toss, quite sensibly let their own seam attack loose rather than face up to the rapid swing of Malcolm Marshall. After some short stuff and eight overs, they finally struck when Ian Bishop had Paul Terry taken in the slips. Even then, Derbyshire required patience.

This was because David Gower came in at No 3 and began to make things appear ridiculously easy. While Tony Middleton ducked, weaved and held up one end, Gower warmed up with a pull to the boundary off Ole Mortensen and soon the boards were taking a pasting. Malcolm, for example, was wincing after three shots of the fetch-that variety quite ruined one of his overs.

Gower's eighth four, an elegant leg glance off Mortenson, took him to his ninth half-century of the season. But the end was nigh, Gower leg before to the Dane and the partnership dissolved for the addition of 79 runs. Middleton, who made 35, and Smith, who hardly troubled the scorers in a summer in which he has now scored only 275 first-class runs for Hampshire, quickly followed suit.

From then on Hampshire were reeling. And if this appeared to be a bowler's paradise, it certainly was in one sense. Peter Bowler has been displaying a huge appetite with the bat and while Andy Brown and John Morris fell to Cardigan Connor and Marshall respectively, Derbyshire need not have worried as they slipped to 12 for 2.

Bowler now had Tim O'Gorman for company and the opener moved to his fifth century of the season in the final over of the day. By then, O'Gorman had accumulated a half century and the pair have yet to be separated after putting on 162. How Hampshire suffered.

Durham's Ian Botham claimed the two Pakistan wickets he most wanted at Chester-le-Street without doing quite enough for an England recall. He had Aamir Sohail caught at mid-wicket for 53 and Javed Miandad caught behind for 25 to finish with 2 for 73 off 19 overs. Botham greeted their dismissals with relative restraint. The tourists declared at 308 for 7.