A career best 7-107 from Adil Rashid could not prevent a Yorkshire defeat at The Rose Bowl

Saturday, 24th May 2008

Hampshire v Yorkshire

August 6-8: Hampshire won by 10 wickets. Adil Rashid takes 7-107 in Hampshire's first innings, but Yorkshire throw away the initiative once again.

Yorkshire have taken control of matches throughout the 2008 season only to sit back and watch them slide from their grasp. Once again the hard work was done at The Rose Bowl only to seemingly take their foot off the pedal and sink to defeat.

After the first morning was washed out Yorkshire won the toss and opted to bat. Yorkshire slumped to 0-1 when Andrew Gale went for a duck after edging to Dimi Mascharenas and Anthony McGrath was trapped in front by Mascharenas for three to bring Jacques Rudolph to the crease.

Rudolph (89) seemed destined for yet another LV County Championship century, but his difficulty was finding batting partners as determined as he was. It took David Wainwright to stay with him to put on 61 for the eighth wicket to shift Yorkshire a little further from danger at the end of Day 1.

Gerard Bropy had made a relatively quick-fire 36 off 51 before he was bowled by James Tomlinson. That signalled the start of the collapse as Yorkshire slipped from 130-4 to 145-7, Adil Rashid added only two following Brophy’s demise but his dismissal was more thanks to a wonderful catch by Michael Brown at short leg as he showed lightening reflexes from close range. Rana Naved was typically swashbuckling albeit tpically short-lived when after a couple of early boundaries he swiped at one too many Imran Tahir deliveries and missed completely to leave the ball free to clip off stump.

David Wainwright (25) was much more careful as he provided the defence to allow Rudolph to move past fifty and in to Day 2 before Yorkshire were dismissed for 236. James Tomlinson was the pick of the Hampshire bowlers with a fine 5-53. 

At 157-2 with Carberry, Brown and Ervine all falling within sight of half centuries, Hampshire would have been confident of a solid first innings lead, but then up stepped Adil Rashid. The leg-spinner took a career best 7-107 as Yorkshire roared back into the game. Yorkshire took eight wickets after tea at The Rose Bowl to leave the sides deadlocked after one innings each on exactly 236 runs a piece, which effectively made the match a one innings shoot-out.

Yorkshire got off to a relative flyer in their second innings reaching 45 before Andrew Gale was bowled by Imran Tahir. Tahir who had disappointed in his one match for Yorkshire in 2007 has been in tremendous form for Hampshire this season and his 4-37 alongside Tomlinson's 4-31 (9-84 in the match) destroyed Yorkshire, although the batsmen contributed hugely to their own downful.

Yorkshire were all out for a paltry 107, losing all ten wickets for just 62 runs. So Hampshire needed 108 to win and most peopl expected them to reach the victory target, but thought they may have to work a little harder than they did.

Michael Carberry and Michael Brown rolled smoothly through the gears to knock off the target with Yorkshire unable to take even a solitary wicket. Carberry hit 53 and Brown weighed in with 46, denied a half century by the speed in which the hosts romped to victory.

The defeat meant that Yorkshire slipped into the relegation zone after losing by ten wickets. Yet another batting collapse had undermined good work in the field and the entire complexion of the season had been altered dramtically in the last few weeks.

Points: Hampshire 18, Yorkshire 4

JMB