Dawson Century Leads the Way

Report from day three of Hampshire's LV= County Championship match against Kent at Tunbridge Wells

KENT v Hampshire
LV= County Championship
Day three: friday 8 June 2012
The Neville, Tunbridge Wells

Summary: Hampshire lead Kent by 229 runs
with four wickets remaining in their first innings
Hampshire: 229-6
Scorecard

Kent Team
Northeast, Key*, Harmison, Nash, Powell, Stevens, Jones†, Coles, Tredwell, Davies, Shreck
Hampshire Team
Adams*, Dawson, Carberry, Katich, Shafayat, Ervine, Bates†, Mascarenhas, Ali, Tomlinson, Balcombe 

A Liam Dawson century anchored the Hampshire innings as they reached 229-6 by close of play on day three of this LV= County Championship match against Kent at Tunbridge Wells.

The all-rounder put on valuable partnerships of 99 and 59 with Simon Katich (54) and Michael Bates (30) respectively to put his side’s difficult start (they were, at one point on day one, 37-3) firmly behind them.

Nevertheless, having once again lost a large portion of the day’s cricket to rain (only 45.2 overs were possible following more drastic losses of play on days one and two) this match seems destined for a shoot-out for bonus points at this stage.

To that end, Hampshire have picked up a single batting point so far to Kent’s two bowling points.

In the much-changed Hampshire line-up that had been announced on Wednesday, one of the most eye-catching amends wasn’t the inclusion of Dimi Mascarenhas in the starting XI for the first time in the Championship, nor that of Bilal Shafayat for only his second senior match of the season in all formats. Rather, it was the re-jigging of the Hampshire batting order, promoting Michael Carberry up from three to open the innings and moving Dawson down to five.

And today that decision appeared to pay off. Of course, it perhaps isn’t that surprising when you consider that the Swindon-born 22-year old has been mostly relied on as the sole Championship spinner in the Hants ranks so far this summer as well as fielding in the high-pressure area of the slip cordon. The move simply allows him the opportunity to take some strain off his all-rounder role.

And, having started the day on 22*, Dawson came out firing, nearly catching Katich (who started the day with nearly twice as many runs) in a race to the half century. Indeed it was only two overs after the Australian had brought up his 50 (113 balls, five fours) that Dawson picked up his own (116 balls, six fours, one six) with a well-struck four off in-form Kent bowler, Matt Coles.

It was a lead-and-support combination that was working beautifully and the pair were looking good for their 100 partnership in the next over when James Tredwell (1-65*), who took a five-wicket haul on this ground last season, removed Katich [pictured below] lbw; the partnership one short of the mark, Hampshire 136-4.

And all that hard work could have been destroyed had Hampshire collapsed after Sean Ervine (0) was bowled by Coles (1-58*) three overs later. Fortunately, in Bates, Hampshire have a wicketkeeper-batsman who is on form in this version of the game, coming off the back of a 41 in tough conditions against Glamorgan and a maiden First Class hundred against Yorkshire in the fixture before that.

The pair rebuilt steadily with Bates peppering the boundary five times in eight overs to move swiftly to 27*. He and Dawson then took their team to 200 – and a first batting bonus point - before the former was caught by Tredwell at slip off Charlie Shreck (2-35*); Hampshire 204-6.

That appeared to end the action for the day with Dawson and new man, Mascarenhas seemingly happy to block out the remainder of the day.

The allotted 40 overs were up with Dawson still yet to reach three figures and seemingly destined to go to bed still wondering, but with 15 minutes to go until 6:30 the umpires allowed some additional overs to be bowled. And having been given a new lease of life, Dawson wasted no time in bringing up his hundred, a cover driven tenth four of a 204 ball innings off Tredwell taking him to the mark.

Going into day four, the visitors’ hopes of reaching 400 and a maximum five bonus points appear to rest largely on his shoulders. Bouyed by his fifth career First Class hundred, Dawson, who starts the day on 111*, will doubtless be looking forward to it.

Catch Up

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Preview:	Balcombe Returns to do Battle with Old Friends
Day One:	Hampshire Spirits Dampened at Kent's Royal Celebration
Day Two:	Hants Pair Rebuild in the Rain

Words: Simon Vincent
Images: NJM Photography

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