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County Championship: Hampshire nightwatchman Mason Crane helps secure draw with Yorkshire
Image source, Rex Features
LV= County Championship Division One, Ageas Bowl, Southampton (day four): |
Yorkshire 243 & 312-6 dec: Ballance 101*, Kohler-Cadmore 89, Hill 55; Barker 2-39 |
Hampshire 163 & 177-9: Weatherley 43, Vince 42, Crane 28; Thompson 4-18 |
Hampshire (11 pts) drew with Yorkshire (12 pts) |
Hampshire nightwatchman Mason Crane batted for more than four hours to help his side secure a nail-biting draw against Yorkshire at The Ageas Bowl.
Crane batted throughout the first two sessions as Hampshire crawled to 120-4 from their overnight 26-2.
Yorkshire took the new ball after tea and it did the trick when Crane edged Matthew Fisher to slip for 28.
Jordan Thompson got James Vince (42) to leave them 177-9 but Kyle Abbott and Brad Wheal saw out the last 7.3 overs.
Abbott and Wheal, both unable to bowl on day three because of injury, did not add a run in their stand of 45 deliveries as Yorkshire were forced to bowl two spinners because of fading light in Southampton.
Hampshire thought all their hard work might have been undone when paceman Thompson (4-18) got one to nip back in to captain Vince and he was pinned lbw.
But Thompson and fellow paceman Ben Coad then had to be removed from the attack as the gloom closed in, leaving England spinner Dom Bess and Adam Lyth to bowl the remaining six overs.
Crane batted for 197 balls in total, while opener Joe Weatherley (43) also frustrated Yorkshire in an innings which lasted just short of three hours.
Once Crane went after tea, the hosts lost Liam Dawson, Lewis McManus and Keith Barker cheaply, but Vince and then Hampshire's last pair saw them to safety.
Hampshire skipper James Vince:
"If you come away with a draw from the position we were in, it really feels like a win.
"We got ourselves behind the game with the bat as the game went on and for the final two batsmen to get us over the line is a pretty good feeling.
"Obviously you want to be pushing for a win on day four not hanging on, but there are three games to go and this keeps us in the mix. Hopefully we can beat Warwickshire and keep ourselves in the hunt to win it."
Yorkshire coach Andrew Gale:
"The lads are gutted because I'd probably say it's our best performance of the season all round. We dominated the game.
"To only come out with one point extra then them, we're disappointed. But I don't think we could have done anything more.
"We tried our best, we tried all different plans. But they showed a lot of character and the pitch lost a lot of pace. It didn't spin or go up and down as much as we thought it would."