John Crawley scores century to lead Hawks to victory

Crawley reaches 100 photo Frank Stainer

Hampshire Hawks recorded their third successive ECB National League Division Two victory to move into second place in the table, thanks mainly to a superb John Crawley century and some excellent bowling that swept aside Durham Dynamos.

The Hawks skipper must be carrying a lucky coin as he won the toss once more - the eleventh times in 13 attempts this season, including all six National League matches to date. This time, he chose to take first use of the Rose Bowl track.

On a slow wicket, run scoring was not easy, but the captain played a leading roll with a 134-ball century. He found good support from Simon Katich (34) and Nic Pothas (30 not out) that enabled the home side to pass 200 within the 45 overs.

Durham got off to a flying start. Nick Peng and Phil Mustard took full advantage of the 15-over fielding rule with Peng particularly punishing, smacking nine fours.

When both openers fell to Dimitri Mascarenhas within 11 runs of each other, it started a mini collapse as Vince Wells and Gary Pratt following soon after. Struggling at 74 for 4, skipper Jon Lewis and Gordon Muchall then rallied with an 82-run stand that brought the men from the North-East well on target.

However, with Alan Mullally bowling a superbly tight spell in conceding just 15 runs in his allocation, it was this pressure from him and the other Hampshire bowlers that finally brought the match back in their favour.

Muchall and Lewis both fell to expansive shots and Danny Law was superbly run out by Shaun Udal as the Durham batsmen faltered in the forelorn chase, ending up seven runs short of victory.

It moved Hampshire into second place in Division Two, six adrift of unbeaten leaders Northamptonshire Steelbacks.