Hampshire lose in three days at Northampton

Hampshire slumped to their second Frizzell Championship defeat of the season, when they went down to Northamptonshire at Wantage Road within three days.

Northamptonshire added 77 runs for the last wicket, just three runs short of their all time record against Hampshire for the 10th wicket. Shaun Udal finally dismissed the persevering Brown giving the home side a vital advantage of 93 runs.

Again Hampshire's batsmen could not contend fully with the conditions, and after losing both openers for 19 runs, were always against the pace. Simon Katich and Robin Smith stayed for a while, and a patient 36 from John Francis held up the inevitable, but again a middle to late order collapse reeked disaster.

Dimitri MAscarenhas the hero with the ball in Northamptonshire's first innings wealded some lusty blows and with Shaun Udal gathered a few extra runs, but with 3 wickets apiece from Damian Wright and Mike Cawdron, the target set the home side was just 87.

James Tomlinson took three wickets in bowling not too disimilar to Twenty20 cricket, as Northants claimed the extra half hour.

Hampshire Hawks meet the Northamptonshire Steelbacks on Sunday in a vital National League match at Wantage Road, and they have recalled James Hamblin, Lawrence Prittipaul, Ed Giddins and Wasim Akram (subject to a fitness test).