Tourists fail their county test

BARRIE FAIRALL

reports from Southampton

Hampshire 268-5

West Indies 225

Hampshire win by 43 runs

There was precious little calypso, just a collapse here yesterday. West Indies arriving cold from the Caribbean, following their Australian ordeal, immediately failed their first county test. It is not that they were bad, for the most part they were pathetic as they fell apart against a side who hitherto had spent much of the early season having sand kicked in their face.

Yesterday morning, a local long-serving scribe had approached Andy Roberts, once Hampshire's terror of a strike bowler and now the tourists' coach. "How are you Andy?" he inquired in a friendly fashion. "Cold," came the single word response. Come the afternoon and the chill had spread deeper, the matine idols of Arundel, unable to avoid defeat in spite of Ottis Gibson's late blast in this 55-overs match.

At the County Ground, Giles White was Hampshire's man of the match, his unbeaten 68 bolstering the innings and three catches, one a brilliant take to account for Keith Arthurton, helping to hustle the slide which bottomed out when Gibson skied Heath Streak to Mark Nicholas at mid-off.

And yet the day had begun badly for Nicholas, who had won the toss only once so far this season and promptly lost out again now. In front of a near full house, though, Hampshire had 43 on the board before Paul Terry was caught and bowled by Winston Benjamin while Sean Morris was looking assured at the other end in the absence of the injured John Stephenson.

Morris, put down by Stuart Williams on 42, went on to make 62 before being bowled by Benjamin after the break and the only disappointment of the morning session was the dismissal of Robin Smith, who square cut Ian Bishop ferociously only to see the ball finish up in Brian Lara's midriff on the boundary's edge.

White and Nicholas, meanwhile, were to feature in an 80-run partnership for the fourth wicket and at 201 for 4 Hampshire were well placed to launch a late assault, White's half century coming from 59 balls and including seven boundaries.

Previously, Hampshire's only win had come against Combined Universities in the Benson and Hedges Cup and they only succeeded then thanks to losing fewer wickets. Now, however, they had West Indies in all sorts of trouble at 98 for 6 and the only real problem then was Gibson. He at least injected some much needed life into the batting, taking two sixes off Norman Cowans and then reaching a 42-ball fifty by raising a delivery from Martin Thursfield on to the roof of the pavilion. When he went once too often for the big hit, though, small wonder Nicholas was almost turning cartwheels.