Hesitant Hants face latest day of reckoning

Hampshire 411 and 176 for 7 (Pringle 5-64) lead Durham 361 (Richardson 99*, Clark 58, Stokes 50, Wheal 4-39, Dawson 4-100) by 226 runsScorecard

There is no better way to prove that you are worthy of Division One status than by bowling out your last opposition in the final five hours of the summer. For Hampshire, that is the task.

With 96 overs remaining in their season, Hampshire lead Durham by 226, a target they do not deem enough – to the extent that, remarkably, they sent in a nightwatchman instead of the No. 9, Gareth Berg, for the last 18 balls of the day. They will bat, according to their director of cricket Giles White, for an hour on the fourth morning. From there, 10 Durham wickets stand between promotion and relegation; with Lancashire looking unlikely to do them any favours at Edgbaston, it really does appear that simple.

Hampshire’s penultimate day of the campaign started badly, and did not improve markedly. Unforecast, unwelcome rain came up the M27 from Bournemouth at about 10am, great swathes of the stuff, preventing a prompt start and refusing to fully shift before noon.

The punters felt they were watching Hampshire’s Division One status wash away with the rain, a tough end to a tough season; a season, it should not be forgotten, including death, life-threatening illness, and the comparatively trifling issue of a coach departing midway through. They busied themselves making small talk about Jonathan Trott, the man both on their back-pages and batting at Edgbaston, the other game of interest. Fingernails were chewed, few sat still.

Upon resumption, with 16 overs lost, little changed. Hampshire began the day in front by …

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