Hampshire suffer against Worcestershire after string of batting errors

Times

15 hours ago

This must rank as one of Hampshire's worst performances with the bat for a good long while. Worcestershire are having a dire season, the pitch is as flat as the seam on the Kookaburra ball and Tom Taylor, who took four first-innings wickets, has done the rounds of the lesser sides in the County Championship. His medium pace was of a disciplined length and hardly anyone could contend with it.
In mitigation, Callum Parkinson, who is on a short loan period from Durham (and must be relieved to have avoided bowling in the run-fest at the Oval this week) had a tidy spell of left-arm spin, taking three wickets. His one previous championship match this season was here, at the start of May. Hampshire also had to bat after conceding 679 runs in weather about as hot as can be experienced in these parts. Those factors apart, there could be no excuses.
It might seem churlish to be critical of Hampshire's top scorer, Tilak Varma. He has come to the club from India through their ownership by the GMR Group, a beneficial link indeed, and he made a century last week at Chelmsford in his first appearance and 56 now, including a lovely swept six off Parkinson. Only he then ran himself out. Chancing a single after driving firmly to Jake Libby's right side at mid on, he was beaten by a direct throw.
Tom Prest contributed 48 but was also out in an unsatisfactory way, pulling at a ball down the leg side and edging to the wicketkeeper. Liam Dawson, normally so cussed in adversity, walked across his stumps and was so patently leg-before to Adam Finch that he did not wait for the umpire's verdict. Ben Brown had gone earlier, fencing at Taylor and caught in the slips. The one batsman who could have felt aggrieved was James Fuller, a ball from Parkinson lifting and resulting in a catch at cover.
Following on a little matter of 458 runs in arrears, Hampshire fared no better. In fending off a shortish ball from Finch and setting off for a run, Ali Orr's left foot hit his wicket. Fletcha Middleton, facing the same bowler and also looking to push the ball away into the leg side, closed the face of his bat and was caught at cover. Nick Gubbins was bowled by Parkinson, the turn minimal but, ominously, some concurrent dust was evident.
Taunton (third day of four): Somerset, with nine second-innings wickets in hand, are 126 runs behind Nottinghamshire
In what has been a breakthrough season for him, Jack Haynes made a career-best 157 in 6½ hours to guide Nottinghamshire to their biggest total at Taunton, 509 all out. That gave them a significant first-innings lead of 130, and with it a decent chance of forcing victory on Wednesday, for there were signs towards the end of the day that a hitherto unresponsive pitch was starting to offer turn off the straight.
Last season, his first with Nottinghamshire after he moved from Worcestershire, Haynes passed 50 on seven occasions but failed to convert any into hundreds. This year however, the 24-year old now has three centuries to his name and is making a strong case for England Lions recognition.
'Jack was massively frustrated last year by his failure to go on to three figures,' Paul Franks, Nottinghamshire's assistant head coach, said. 'We didn't push it but he needed to convert to stop people talking about it. He benefited a lot from 12 weeks of playing grade cricket in Adelaide last winter and should have a good chance of Lions selection going forward.'
Haynes, on 34 overnight, reached an eighth first-class hundred from 176 balls. He shared century partnerships with both Ishan Kishan (77 off 128 balls) and Lyndon James (66 off 118), with all three playing the spin of Jack Leach and Archie Vaughan adeptly. Haynes used his feet well to them to rotate the strike as well as sweeping productively, although he was eventually out to the shot. Strong off both front and back foot, Haynes played some pedigree attacking strokes through the off side as well as pulling Matt Henry for six.
For Somerset, Leach finished with six for 121 from 53.2 overs, his first five-wicket haul of the season. His control could not be faulted, for he bowled 247 dot balls. Three of his victims were caught at slip by Craig Overton.
Left with one over to negotiate before the close, Somerset sent out Henry as a nightwatchman to face the left-arm spin of Liam Patterson-White. Henry lashed the first ball for four but made a curious attempt to repeat the shot off the last ball of the day. He was bowled neck and crop to render it a very good day for Nottinghamshire.