HONOURS SHARED AT THE ROSE BOWL by Marcus Hook
Hampshire 227 & 247-8 v Surrey 278 & 229-8d. Match drawn.

The conditions throughout the match may not have been ideal, but, thanks to Mark Butcher's declaration, this contest was a wonderful advert for four-day county cricket. With ten overs to go and Hampshire needing 55 to win with four wickets remaining all three results were possible. When Surrey's Matt Nicholson held on to a swirling chance at deep backward square leg to see the back of Dimitri Mascarenhas, the Brown Caps let out a collective sigh of relief. But it was immediately followed by the realisation that Surrey could pull off a deserved win. At that point the hosts, who gave the appearance of a side for whom the chance of a victory in this year's championship will not come round very often, needed 47 off seven. Everything depended on whether Hampshire would throw caution to the wind. But when Greg Lamb was leg before, attempting to reverse sweep Jimmy Ormond's off-spin three overs later, the shutters came down.

Earlier, resuming on 151-7, Surrey added 78 to their overnight total thanks to an eighth wicket partnership of 140 between Nicholson and Ormond. In the second over of the day Nicholson drove Mascarenhas through extra cover for four. Two overs later the tall Australian became the only second man in the match to reach fifty, which came off a top-edged hook to the fine-leg boundary; though not before a similar stroke went straight up in the air and landed in front of the Hampshire captain, whose body language at the start if play suggested he had other things on his mind.

Nicholson's half-century took him 80 balls. Four overs later Ormond moved to his, in 121 deliveries. The 30-year-old brought up the hundred stand with a back foot drive past mid-off for four, which was hit with such ease it hinted the pitch had flattened out completely. With Sean Ervine opting for the short ball on a number of occasions, Ormond pulled him for four in the 64th over, but when the former Zimbabwe international dug it in again Nicholson only succeeded in slapping him high to third man.

Surrey declared five overs later, leaving Ormond with a career best 64 not out and the hosts requiring 281 to win off a minimum of 75 overs.

During the eight overs before lunch Hampshire lost the wicket of Michael Carberry, who was undone by a back of a length ball from Pedro Collins that left him off the pitch. But for much of the afternoon session it appeared that Butcher had under-estimated his opponents' resolve. Indeed, when Michael Brown and Jimmy Adams were constructing a stand of 96 in 33 overs for the second wicket, a Hampshire victory looked a possibility.

In the 28th over, Brown went to fifty with the first of three fours in the over off Chris Jordan. A flick to the square leg boundary brought it up in 76 deliveries. The 28-year-old opener then cut the young tyro's next ball over gully and before the over was out the sparse crowd was treated to a perfectly executed on drive.

At the other end Adams, who was fortunate when on 1, to see a ball from Nicholson bisect the keeper and first slip at a catchable height, was more restrained. Six overs before tea he fell leg before to Saqlain Mushtaq, who then accounted for Michael Lumb with one that hurried on to the former Yorkshire left-hander in the 39th over.

At tea, Hampshire needed a challenging 158 off 35 overs, but the game remained in the balance for most of the evening session, during which Saqlain picked up the wickets of Brown and Chris Benham on his way to figures of 5-74. Brown's 94 came off 163 balls and included ten fours, but it was Ervine's 51 off 59 balls that made things interesting.

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