Essex v Hampshire: Scores and match report

Match scores (Chelmsford)

Essex win by an innings and 97 runs 

Essex 1st inns: 360 (Cook 124, Westley 111; Abbott 5-58)

Hampshire 1st inns: 115 (McManus 39, Abbott 36; Porter 5-24, Quinn 2-32, Bopara 2-27)
Hampshire 2nd inns: 148 (McManus 37, Bailey 32; Harmer 3-23, Porter 2-21, Wagner 2-39)

Day three report

Jamie Porter led the Essex attack in bowling out Hampshire twice inside three sessions for a three-day win to move to the top of the Specsavers County Championship, at least for 24 hours.

Porter took seven wickets in the match for 45 runs, including career-best first-class figures of five for 24 in the first innings, as Hampshire, following on 245 runs behind, disintegrated for a second time and lost by an innings and 97 runs.

Hampshire had started the day 268 runs short of making Essex bat again. They were all out for 115 - having been 15 for five and 34 for seven during the second evening - and fared little better when sent straight back in, losing by an innings with more than four sessions to spare. Essex collected 22 points for their efforts, Hampshire just one.

Only Lewis McManus showed an aptitude for the fight in both innings, following his first-innings 39 with 37. George Bailey weighed in with 32, but the rest dropped like flies. South African Rilee Rossouw bagged a pair - and only faced three balls all game.

Simon Harmer only bowled five overs in the match, yet claimed figures of three for 23.

Hampshire's second innings got off to the worst possible start when Liam Dawson shuffled across his stumps in Porter's second over and was trapped lbw to one that angled in. James Vince tried to move things along and had reached 17 when he drove Neil Wagner forcefully into the covers where Nick Browne took the catch low down.

Michael Carberry had survived a let-off on two when Tom Westley floored an in-and-out chance into his midriff at second slip. It did not prove too costly as Carberry went to Harmer's first ball in the match, the last one before lunch, when he was pinned lbw. He had occupied the crease for 20 overs while scoring six runs.

Harmer's second ball after lunch accounted for Rossouw, plumb leg before. His last Championship innings had been 99 against Middlesex.

Having reduced Hampshire from 40 for two to 40 for four, his job done, Harmer was replaced by Porter with figures of 2-2-0-2.

Porter made it 50 for five when Sean Ervine played around a straight one and turned to see his off-stump land 10 yards beyond its starting place, the bails eight yards further on.

Bailey hit four boundaries in his battling 32 from 82 balls before he nicked Matt Quinn behind. McManus showed the same durability as his first-innings 39 and had reached 37 second time around when he hooked a short ball from Wagner to Quinn at long leg.

Kyle Abbott was unable to repeat his first-innings heroics, failing to beat Ryan ten Doeschate's direct hit from mid-on to the non-striker's end. Gareth Berg, on 24, played all round one from Harmer. Mason Crane launched Tom Westley for six and next ball skied one to ten Doeschate at mid-on and it was all over 15 minutes before tea.

Essex had wrapped up the Hampshire first innings inside nine overs in the morning with Porter taking two of the three wickets to fall.

Day two report

Hampshire lost five wickets with the score on 18 before closing on 92 for seven as Essex took complete control of their Specsavers County Championship match at Chelmsford.

Kyle Abbott's five for 58 helped limit Essex to 360 - having started day two on 243 for two - but the visitors then found themselves in deep trouble at the start of their response.

Having progressed to 18 without loss, Hampshire lost Liam Dawson, James Vince, Michael Carberry, Rilee Rossouw and George Bailey in the space of 17 balls as Jamie Porter and Matt Quinn shared all five wickets between them during a stunning spell.

From 18 for five it became 34 for seven as Ravi Bopara weighed in with the scalps of Sean Ervine and Gareth Berg as the Essex bowlers ran riot in overcast evening conditions.

After the sun had belatedly come out, Hampshire managed to stage a late recovery with Lewis McManus (30 not out) and Abbott (27no) putting on an unbroken 58-run stand for the eighth wicket - but the visitors still trailed by 268 runs at the close.

The rot started in the fifth over, bowled by Porter, when Dawson played an unconvincing forward prod and got an outside edge to former Hampshire wicketkeeper Adam Wheater, and four balls later Vince's middle-stump was sent cartwheeling as he was beaten by Porter's pace.

Quinn got in on the act in the next over when he trapped Carberry lbw offering no shot before dismissing Rossouw first ball, the South African caught down low by a diving Neil Wagner at mid-on.

Captain Bailey gave Porter his third wicket when he shouldered arms to one that nipped back and was bowled, leaving Hampshire with their top five back in the changing rooms and only 18 runs on the board.

It was to get even worse for the visitors, though, with Bopara, having replaced Quinn at the River End, snaring Ervine with his first ball and then sending back Berg four balls later, both players caught by Wheater.

McManus and Abbott finally managed to stop the procession with a determined half-century partnership, but Hampshire remained in deep trouble at stumps.

The day had started much better for Bailey's men as they picked up Essex's final eight wickets for just 117 runs - having also dismissed century-maker Tom Westley with the final ball of the opening day.

Abbott did most of the damage, taking his third five-wicket haul of the Championship season in two brief, but devastatingly hostile spells either side of lunch.

The South African paceman, who now has 25 Championship wickets at 15.76 each, had to carry much of the burden for Hampshire's attack after Fidel Edwards suffered a shoulder injury on the first day that will prevent his participation in the rest of the match.

Abbott, though, was up to the task.

He had ended the 243-run stand between Alastair Cook and Westley last thing on Friday night and used the new ball to great effect in the morning.

With the third delivery of the 81st over, Abbott trapped Dan Lawrence lbw shuffling across his stumps.

Abbott then saw Cook dropped by Dawson at third slip but only had to wait another over to snare the former England captain, who was caught behind after adding just 10 runs to his overnight total to depart for 124.

The Essex wickets continued to tumble but Bopara, who passed 11,000 first-class runs in his 23, Ryan ten Doeschate (37) and tail-enders Wagner and Quinn at least ensured they got a third batting point - a significant increase on the paltry two from their previous three matches.

Abbott added both Bopara and Ten Doeschate to his haul on a rain-affected day, but his efforts were undone by Hampshire's top-order collapse and it will be the South African's batting which is needed now.

Day one report

Alastair Cook and Tom Westley both posted centuries for Essex as Hampshire toiled in the field on a rain-shortened first day of the Specsavers County Championship match at Chelmsford.

The pair put on a record 243 runs for the second wicket against Hampshire after Nick Browne departed to the fifth ball of a day shorn by 17 overs because of the weather.

Westley beat Cook to three figures by seven balls in the late evening as both played patient, sensible innings to grind out the platform for what should be a big first innings total after being asked to bat.

Cook had an unbeaten 114 at the close which came four balls early when Westley was bowled by Kyle Abbott for 111.

For Cook, in particular, the statistics keep mounting. He went past 800 in all cricket this summer, 300 of them in the championship. This was also his eighth score over fifty in the two competitions contested to date, his fourth ton of the season and 19th career century for Essex.

Westley has been in and out of form this season, but has still amassed 600 runs across the championship and Royal London Cup. This was his second century of the season, and Hampshire will be sick of the sight of him as he had already taken 93 off their attack in the earlier white ball game at the same ground.

The day's play had already been reduced from 96 overs to 92 when it finally started 45 minutes late after overnight rain. Just three overs were possible in the morning session - for the loss of Browne's wicket - before the rain returned and an early lunch was taken. By then the day's allocation had been reduced to 79 overs.

Hampshire looked at the conditions at 11.15am and went for an uncontested toss and were rewarded when Browne clipped Fidel Edwards off his legs straight to Mason Crane at square leg without scoring. Westley survived a first ball appeal for a catch behind, but then went from strength to strength.

Abbott almost cut Westley in half with a late inswinger, and much later had him tucked up with one that jumped into his midriff.

Gareth Berg had Cook in some discomfort for a couple of overs, but Westley responded by hitting the South African for successive boundaries. The first was hammered off the back foot through the covers to bring up the fifty partnership in 19 overs. The second fifty was quicker, taking just a further 10 overs.

For a spell, runs were hard to come by on a slow outfield, and Cook had to run three for a well-timed drive through the offside that would normally have gone for four. Westley, though, outscored his partner in mid-innings, and found the ropes with greater regularity.

Westley's ninth four, an angled shot past third slip off Berg, brought up his fifty from 75 balls. Cook followed him with his fifth four, a drive square on the offside off Edwards. His fifty had taken 113 balls.

Hampshire used seven bowlers to try to find a way of breaking the partnership, which went past 150 in the 46th over.

Westley was becalmed for the first seven overs after tea before finding a gap through the covers for boundary number 13. He went past his previous highest championship score of the summer - the 86 not out against Somerset - with a four and two from successive balls by Liam Dawson.

Essex claimed only their third batting point of the season in the 63rd over, at the same time as the partnership passed 200.

Westley was first to three figures when he whipped Sean Ervine through the covers for his 15th boundary in 178 balls. In the next over, Cook stroked Crane through the offside for a 222-ball century that included 12 fours.

Westley did not make it to the close but with Cook in fine form Essex look well set for day two.