Hampshire v Middlesex: Scores & match report

Match scores (Ageas Bowl)

Match drawn 

Middlesex 1st inns: 356 all out (Robson 84, Eskinazi 82; Wheal 4-98)
Middlesex 2nd inns: 278-9 (Voges 92, Eskinazi 45; Abbott 5-59)

Hampshire 1st inns: 438 all out (Rossouw 99, Carberry 98, Abbott 56, Ervine 53, Berg 43; Malan 2-19, Roland-Jones 2-86, Rayner 2-107)

Day four report

Middlesex began their Specsavers County Championship title defence with a hard-fought draw with Hampshire after some dogged resistence from their tail.

Toby Roland-Jones, Ollie Rayner and Tim Murtagh magnificently saved them from defeat after Hampshire had looked set to ease to victory following three wickets with the second new ball but the visitors held on at the Ageas Bowl.

Middlesex had been in defensive mood throughout the fourth day after starting with a slender lead of 27 and six wickets in hand.

Adam Voges and nightwatchman Steven Finn saw off the first 57 minutes of the morning in defensive style.

Voges in particular looked unmovable, with a desperate lbw shout against him the closest the hosts came to an early scalp.

Finn, who had been prolific in his blocking, was the only wicket to fall in the morning when he was caught by substitute fielder Fraser Hay at mid-wicket - after a cunning Brad Wheal short-ball plan paid off.

Voges was joined by John Simpson and the duo added an important 35, with the potential required runs for Hampshire advancing further from sight.

The Australian moved carefree through a 115-ball half-century as Hampshire took their foot off the gas approaching the second new ball.

The wait was worth it as they struck just three deliveries after taking the new ball - Voges chasing Kyle Abbott on the cut to edge behind.

In doing so, Voges became the fifth to pass the mark and fall short of three figures and also the third batsman to fall in their 90s in the match.

Only two more runs were scored before James Franklin edged a delightful Abbott delivery to Jimmy Adams at second slip.

Gareth Berg produced the delivery of the day when he managed to get one to spit off a length to send Simpson back caught behind just five balls later.

But that is where the game ended as a contest as Roland-Jones took the sting out with a time-consuming 25.

However, the Wisden Cricketer of the Year did depart when he clipped Wheal to Adams while attempting a slog pull.

If Hampshire had taken the last wicket quickly there was still time for a thrilling chase but a perplexing over from Wheal, which saw Tim Murtagh pull three time straight down the ground.

But the pair added an unbeaten 26, with 63 put on for the last two stands, before hands were shaken on a draw at 4:50pm.

Day three report

Michael Carberry and Rilee Rossouw missed out on centuries but Hampshire remained in the control against Middlesex at the Ageas Bowl.

The pair produced brilliant, brave innings before rare moments of ill-judgement saw them off for 98 and 99 respectively.

The hosts were dismissed for 438 - a first-innings lead of 82 - but stayed firmly on top thanks to Kyle Abbott's three-wicket blitz on the visitors' top-order. 

Middlesex ended the day on 111 for four - 29 runs ahead.

The day began with Carberry, who missed the second half of last season as he underwent cancer treatment, falling two runs short of a long-awaited hundred in the Specsavers County Championship.

The 36-year-old watchfully negotiated the early overs, desperate not to gift his wicket away, after starting the day on 84.

But, two balls after moving to 98 with a thick edge through the slip cordon, he opened his shoulders for the first time since the previous evening, but tickled behind - leaving the Ageas Bowl in stunned silence.

Abbott, elevated to night-watchman on day two, had been in flowing mood on the drive throughout the morning and reached his maiden championship fifty off 77 balls. He had put on 80 with Carberry before the opener and Lewis McManus fell soon after each other - the wicketkeeper gloving to third slip.

Carberry's dismissal brought Rossouw to the crease, after being forced to flee down the order due to a chipped finger in his left hand. The South African was bashed twice on the same hand twice during his counter-attacking stand with Gareth Berg - the pair adding 86 for the eighth wicket.

The duo both crashed massive sixes in a speedy stand before Berg was caught and bowled by Dawid Malan, with Brad Wheal caught behind next ball. 

Rossouw was inexplicably dropped by Malan in the covers - the ball barely picked up speed off the bat but looped through the fielder's hands. 

Fidel Edwards, who injured his hamstring while bowling, completed a walking-wounded partnership for the last wicket.

Brave Rossouw had often needed to lift his bottom hand off the bat but, after taking on a never-there two, he was run out by Sam Robson.

With Hampshire leading by just 82 after the first innings, it looked like a draw was almost guaranteed on the final day - but Abbott had other ideas.

The former South Africa star ripped through Robson with a beauty which seemed to grow and straighten on the opener. He then accounted for Nick Gubbins with a pearler - his 50th in the championship - angling slightly across the left-hander to kiss the edge of the bat and clip into Jimmy Adams' hands at second slip.

Abbott almost had a third when Sean Ervine dropped a tough chance at first slip with Stevie Eskinazi on six.

Wheal used his impressive pace to take the third scalp as Malan left a hooping in-swinger. Eskinazi and Adam Voges made a recovery to take Middlesex back into the black, but the former's late swipe behind for 45 off Abbott left Hampshire still hoping for victory. 

Day two report

Michael Carberry closed in on a first Specsavers County Championship century of the season with a fine 84 not out on the second day against Middlesex.

The Hampshire opener is making his first Ageas Bowl appearance in the Championship since he was diagnosed with cancer last June.

Carberry pulled his side into a strong position as they replied to Middlesex's 356, ending the day 147 runs in arrears with six wickets remaining.

Carberry showed off his attritional side to wear down Tim Murtagh, Steven Finn and Toby Roland-Jones as he forged partnerships with Jimmy Adams, Liam Dawson and Sean Ervine.

He and Adams added 57 for the first wicket before Adams edged Ollie Rayner to James Franklin and the same two Middlesex players reversed their roles to see off James Vince via a thick edge.

The hallmarks of a good Carberry innings are his cutting and pulling and the former was prominent throughout before he eventually brought out the pull shot against Murtagh to send the ball crashing into the advertising hoardings.

Carberry's fifty came from 154 balls, brought up with a stinging cut to the boundary - one of 12 shots which reached the fence in one form or another.

Liam Dawson was not best pleased when umpire Jeremy Lloyds lifted his finger to the last ball before tea, with the batsman adjudged to have tickled one behind off Rayner.

Carberry's longest-standing partner turned out to be Sean Ervine, with the pair scoring at the quickest rate of a slow-going day.

The Zimbabwean scored a 70-ball fifty before Finn returned to the attack with six overs left in the day to make him play on.

Kyle Abbott, jumping up the order with Rilee Rossouw dropping right down with a chipped finger, looped a simple chance to Sam Robson at gully but the ball somehow hit the turf.

Earlier, Middlesex were bowled out for 356 with Brad Wheal ending up with figures of four for 98 for the hosts.

Abbott took the first of the four wickets left over from the first day when he found Franklin feeling a foot outside off-stump, the ball daggering to Vince at third slip.

And despite Roland-Jones hurrying the tail with an exhilarating 39, Wheal accounted for him when he nicked to second slip. Dawson pinned Rayner in front before Scotland international Wheal had Finn leg before.

Day one report

Sam Robson and Steve Eskinazi both scored fifties before getting out in the 80s as Middlesex opened their Specsavers County Championship title defence against Hampshire.

The pair added 105 for the second wicket with both reaching their milestone with unassuming yet not run shy stays at the crease.

But Hampshire, who bowled with a man light for the majority of the day after Fidel Edwards went off injured, battled hard in the evening session to even up the contest - after turning 220 for two into 290 for six at the close.

James Franklin decided to have a toss and duly won it and elected to bat - the Middlesex captain looking down not up with overcast skies overshadowed by a decidedly flat looking pitch.

There were cheers from supporters around the ground as a steward unfurled and raised a 'Middlesex County Champions 2017' flag above the away dressing room.

Robson has a knack of scoring early season runs - with his first three scores of last season 231, 106, and 99 disproving the general thought of April suiting the swing bowlers.

He began this knock in style clipping Edwards through mid-wicket to the boundary with the first delivery before following up with two further fours soon after.

But the fast-paced opening was dulled as Gareth Berg and Kyle Abbott tidied up - with Edwards forced to sit out the rest of the day after his 21st over hamstring injury, after previously pulling out of a delivery in the run-up.

Robson lost his opening partner to a corking ball from West Indian Edwards - the last bowler finding some late movement to find the edge before second slip Rilee Rossouw pulled off a stunning low catch.

Robson was dropped by Rossouw on 40 - which saw the South African miss the rest of the day with a hand injury.

Former England Test opener Robson cut and clipped off his legs in text book style reaching his fifty in 82 deliveries.

After a century stand with Eskinazi, Robson finally departed for 84 when he nicked Berg to Jimmy Adams, standing at second slip in place of Rossouw.

Dawid Malan accompanied Eskinazi, who reached his third first-class fifty in 102 balls, - with the former smashing two sixes.

The evening found Hampshire finally turn a reasonably one-sided day around - with four wickets falling in the session.

Firstly, Malan guided the impressive Brad Wheal to Sean Ervine at first slip, before the Zimbabwean bowled Eskinazi for 82 three overs later - the ball clipping the very top of off-stump.

Adam Voges, who suffered a head injury at the Ageas Bowl last year, scored 24 quickly before he chopped Kyle Abbott onto his own stumps.

John Simpson struggled by scoring just nine in 58 balls before he drove Wheal to substitute fielder Mason Crane at point.