Hampshire Fall To Defeat Against Essex

Hampshire suffered a heavy defeat on day three of their Specsavers County Championship match against Essex at Chelmsford.

After beginning the day on 92-7, Hampshire lost their final three wickets early in the morning session before Essex enforced the follow-on.

With the deficit still standing at 245, Essex again made early in-roads and with wickets falling at regular intervals throughout the second-innings, the hosts went on to claim a convincing victory, the margin an innings and 97 runs.

Hampshire had started the day 268 runs short of making Essex bat again, and Lewis McManus (39) and Kyle Abbott (36) would have hoped to keep the home-side at bay early on.

However, when both men departed in quick succession and Fidel Edwards (0) followed soon after, Hampshire were all out for 115 - Jamie Porter (5-24) doing the damage.

Following on, the visitors' second innings got off to a difficult start, with the top three in the order dismissed prior to lunch with Hampshire 40-3.

Simon Harmer’s (3-23) second ball after lunch accounted for Rilee Rossouw who was unfortunate to be adjudged LBW, and Jamie Porter was quick to make his presence felt with the ball again when a nipping delivery saw Sean Ervine bowled.

George Bailey (32) hit four boundaries in his battling innings before he then edged behind, whilst McManus (37) showed resilince yet again second time around, but his knock concluded when he hooked a short ball to long leg leaving the total on 111-7, 134 runs behind.

The final three wickets then fell for the addition of 37 runs as Essex wrapped up a commanding win.