Hampshire in acendancy at Bath, if weather holds

Despite a total of 37 overs being lost in the days play at Bath, Hampshire made good progress on the second day of their Frizzell Championship match against Somerset.

Resuming at 149-3, Vice-captain Will Kendall was the mainstay of the Hampshire innings, as wickets fell at steady intervals throughout the morning session. Overcast conditions, a wicket of uneven bounce and some accurate bowling from the Somerset seamers all made batting difficult.

Neil Johnson was first to go edging Matthew Bulbeck to Peter Bowler's safe hands at slip, then Jason Laney called into the side to replace John Crawley was unfortunate to receive a ball that got up. Will Kendall who struck what could be a vital 88 (14 fours) in his vigilant stay drove to mid-wicket and was caught at the second attempt by Michael Burns. Nic Pothas and Dimitri Mascarenhas struck some good blows, and Hampshire would not have been too unhappy on this ground to achieve 252 all out.

When Somerset batted their innings was interrupted after 3 overs with another heavy shower, and on the resumption Alan Mullally trapped the dangerous Australian Jamie Cox and the veteran Peter Bowler lbw. Giles White then took a stunning mid-wicket catch to dismiss Burns.

Hampshire coach and former Somerset batsman, Jimmy Cook described the pre-tea session as some one of the finest 20 overs spell of seam bowling he had seen this season, and urged his team to continue in this vein. His words would have still been ringing in their ears as they quickly dismissed two more to have Somerset reeling at 51-5.

Before bad light brought play to a premature end, Ian Blackwell had struck 6 fours to recover their situation slightly.

Hampshire will be hoping that the unseasonable weather abates as they seek their second Championship win of the season.