Edwards and Dawson put Hampshire in control

FOUR-WICKET hauls from Fidel Edwards and Liam Dawson put Hampshire in early command of their Specsavers County Championship Division One match against Surrey.
Wickets: Fidel Edwards  Picture: Neil MarshallWickets: Fidel Edwards  Picture: Neil Marshall
Wickets: Fidel Edwards Picture: Neil Marshall

As the home side collapsed to 211 all out in the final session, Edwards finished with figures of four for 38 and Dawson four for 30.

But by stumps, Hampshire were a wobbly 52 for three in reply, with Rikki Clarke having Lewis McManus lbw for 22 and Jimmy Adams caught behind for 17, before Sam Curran won an lbw appeal against nightwatchman Chris Wood with the last ball of the day.

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Former West Indies fast bowler Edwards gave Hampshire the perfect start by snapping up two wickets in his new ball burst.

He dismissed both Mark Stoneman and Scott Borthwick in a fiery spell of 5-1-9-2 from the Oval’s Vauxhall End after Surrey had won a toss but slipped to 23 for two.

A third-wicket stand of 87 in 33 overs between Rory Burns and Dean Elgar, however, then provided a solid base for a Surrey recovery, which also featured Ben Foakes and Ollie Pope.

But from 187 for four at tea, it was a sorry tale as Dawson’s left-arm spin combined with Edwards’ pace to skittle the hosts’ lower order.

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In all, Surrey lost their last six wickets for 24 runs in nine overs.

The trouble for Surrey began with the first ball after tea from South African seamer Kyle Abbott which beat Pope on the back foot and pinned him leg-before for 34.

Pope and Foakes had added 73 in 23 overs for the fifth wicket but, suddenly all the hard graft that they, Burns and Elgar had put in was largely wasted.

Curran, instead of getting his head down in support of Foakes, jumped out at Dawson and tried to hit him over long off.

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Miscuing, he succeeded only in lofting a simple catch to Wood and departed for 5.

Foakes, who had played impressively for his two-hour 46, was then beaten by Dawson’s arm ball and leg-before as he pushed out from the crease.

Once he had gone, there was little further resistance.

Clarke, aimed big and skied to Wood at long on to go for 5.

Edwards yorked Jade Dernbach for a duck and Matt Dunn had also failed to score when he propped forward to Dawson and edged to slip to be last man out.

– MARK BALDWIN