Hampshire turn to sandy pitch for Great Escape 2

Hampshire 325 for 5 (Vince 92, Smith 90, Adams 53, Ervine 50 ) v DurhamScorecard

Hampshire’s pursuit of the 22 points they began this game needing to guarantee safety, and a second consecutive Great Escape, could barely have started better. By day’s end, on a pitch already turning with some venom, four of those points were in the bag. A fifth – they need 30 runs in 13 overs – seems there for the taking. Events at Edgbaston are going their way.

There was, it seems, a masterplan in place. The players have been agonising over this pitch since their last game, against Surrey at the Oval, finished in a draw 11 days ago. Then James Vince, the captain, had hinted that they wanted, perhaps needed, the ball to turn and that Mason Crane, Liam Dawson and even Will Smith would have substantial roles to play with the ball. Spin-bowling, as Hampshire had suspected and Vince subsequently proved in his fine hand of 92, is not Durham’s forte.

Smith, who made 90, seemed pleased with Hampshire’s day. “It’s a wicket where we don’t think it’s going to get any better so getting as many runs as we can first up is great,” he said. “To be 370 on day one is great, with some bonus points – get that final one and we have done well.”

Paul Collingwood looked up (on a cold, cloudy morning), not down (at a dry, straw-coloured surface with a small ridge running down it that apparently had umpire Geoff Cook smiling before play), and invited Hampshire to bat without so much as the flick of a coin.

In trying to play to his strengths – seam and swing, he was unwittingly playing his part in the masterplan. Hampshire wanted to bat first, bat big, and then let the pitch disintegrate under Crane and Dawson’s watch. The sight of Ryan Pringle’s …

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