Woeful Hampshire trounced by Durham again

Hampshire departed the north-east heading for the south-west tonight with their tails between their legs having seen their National League Division Two championship and promotion hopes take a hammering at the hands of Durham Dynamos at the Riverside.

It capped off a disasterous five days for the south coast county, having been thrashed in the Championship the day before - it was no wonder they wanted to take the long trek to Taunton tonight instead of on Bank Holiday Monday.

On a wicket that gave plenty of assistance to the quicker bowlers, Hawks skipper John Crawley won the toss and chose to take first use only to see the first four wickets disappear with only 34 on the board.

Eighteen-year-old Liam Plunkett dismissed James Hamblin and Simon Katich, after the Australian had hammered Neil Killeen out of the attack with four fours in his 12-ball 18. However, the introduction of England paceman Stephen Harmison further dented Hampshire as only John Francis held firm.

Reduced to 93-8, Chaminda Vaas showed some resistance with the bat with an unbeaten 28 once Francis (25) and Udal (16) had fallen. Spinner Graeme Bridge wrapped up the tail with 4-20 but 131 was never likely to be enough.

And so it proved despite Vaas dispatching Martin Love and Ashley Thorpe in the space of two balls as Nicky Peng and the returning Paul Collingwood clocked up 91 for the third wicket to lead the side, starting the day second bottom of the table to a rare victory.

Peng finished unbeaten on 56 while Collingwood smashed 48 to lead Durham to victory with nearly 20 overs to spare.