Date-stamped : 20 Aug95 - 22:25 Tour Match: Hampshire v West Indies Southampton, 16, 17, 18 August 1995 ====> Day 1, 16 Aug 95 West Indian draftees add something extra - Doug Ibbotson First day of three. West Indies (135-1) trail Hants (192) by 57 runs IT IS disconcerting to discover, especially if you are Hampshire batsmen, that the West Indians are able to trawl English league cricket and come up with a couple of sometime Test bowlers who can take wickets and bowl no-balls almost as readily as the in- cumbents. At Southampton, with Kenny Benjamin, Courtney Walsh, Ian Bishop and Curtly Ambrose resting between more significant engagements, the tourists brought in Anderson Cummins, formerly with Durham, from Bromley CC, and Phil Simmons, Leicestershire and Lancashire League. These two were drafted in under contract and will remain for the match against Essex at Chelmsford to conserve the established strike force for the Oval Test. Brian Lara and Stuart Williams, of the Trent Bridge team, were also omitted. A somewhat more obtuse selection was that of the two wicket- keepers, Junior Murray, who had an unhappy Test at Old Trafford, and Courtney Browne, who replaced him at Nottingham. In the event, it proved more propitious than mischievous when Murray injured a hand before lunch and Browne took over behind stumps. This, incidentally, occasioned a brief appearance by Am- brose at second slip instead of Vasbert Drakes, one of the 12 named on the scorecard. Campbell smiled his way to a half-century with eight fours and a six None of which proved nearly so bewildering as the fact that Hampshire, led for the first time in a first-class match by John Stephenson, declined to 96 for five before lunch on an amiable pitch. Having won the toss, Hampshire lost Paul Terry to the fifth ball of a lively opening over from Ottis Gibson. A lofted boundary to third man may have been intentional, but two balls later he was patently beaten by pace and lost the off stump. The next four wickets fell to Cummins at a personal cost of 38 runs. The first two, Richard Laney and Tony Middleton, were caught at the wicket by Murray, which evoked the wry observation that this involved an element of bad luck. Matthew Keech fell to a superb catch at third slip and Kevan James was taken in the gully. The bowlers, meanwhile, had been supplementing the meagre score with extras which, by the end of the innings, had reached 60 - 40 of them no-balls. The West Indian response to a modest total of 192 reached in mid-afternoon was appropriately footloose and fancy free. Sherwin Campbell and Simmons raised 45 in 12 overs before the latter holed out at backward point. Campbell smiled his way to a half-century with eight fours and a six and, on 57, scored his 1,000th run of the tour. Source :: The Electronic Telegraph (http://www.telegraph.co.uk) Contributed by The Management (help@cricinfo.com) ====> Day 2, 17 Aug 95 Hooper reduces Hants to rubble - Doug Ibbotson Second day of three: West Indies (696-6) lead Hants (192) by 504 runs A CAVALCADE of batsmanship, remorselessly metronomic, occasional- ly balletic and often brutal, reduced Hampshire to the status of buskers, while Sherwin Campbell and Carl Hooper, in particular, bombarded the auditorium and beyond. Hooper followed Campbell`s elegant 172 with an awesome 195 that featured 20 fours and 10 sixes, one of which plummeted through a bedroom window in Northlands Road. At least four balls were lost in the course of the day. Though the day`s events raised more than a hint of the sledgehammer/nut syndrome, there was much to enjoy for con- noisseurs and collectors of statistics. Hooper admirers will recall that in the corresponding match of 1991 the all-rounder from Guyana reached 196, though to suggest that yesterday`s performance represented a decline in form would not be well received by Hampshire`s bowlers, four of whom conced- ed more than 100 runs. Nor would the fact that they had yielded the highest total achieved on this ground since the Australian tourists ran up 708 for seven in 1921. Inevitably from the moment the current tourists resumed their in- nings at 135 for one, the facts and figures flowed freely and im- pressively yet oddly lacking in significance. Instead, satisfaction was derived from the variety and quality of strokes painted on the parched canvas, first by Campbell, who reached his century with a square-leg boundary - his 17th - and his 150 with a delicate cut. Hooper, altogether more beligerent, stormed to a half-century off 41 balls, a hundred with 11 fours and a six, and by the time he reached 150 had brutalised the exterior of several desirable pro- perties. Source :: The Electronic Telegraph (http://www.telegraph.co.uk) Contributed by The Management (help@cricinfo.com) ====> Day 3, 18 Aug 95 Spinners act as shepherds - Doug Ibbotson Hampshire (192 & 302-5) drew with West Indians (696-6 dec) THOUGH not quite a dustcart day, after Thursday`s Lord Mayor`s Show, entertainment and enterprise were somewhat thin on the ground. Not that anyone minded much, least of all the West Indi- ans, whose relentless pursuit of batting practice was amply ful- filled. This, in fact, killed the event as a meaningful contest when the tourists plundered a first-innings lead of 504 before declaring. It is arguable, too, that the time might have been spent more profitably facing their own bowlers in the nets. In the event, Hampshire`s response followed a predictable pat- tern. They embarked on a breezy course which raised 154 for two off 31 overs and clattered on to 230 for five in the early after- noon before subsiding into terminal boredom. In terms of the game`s preoccupation with Test cricket, one-day internationals and limited-over tournaments, matches against the tourists no longer engage mass attention nor assume great impor- tance. Nevertheless, management, captains and players of both sides have an obligation to the spectators - not least the many youngsters eager to savour the atmosphere and to collect autographs. In the latter respect, they were curtly treated by at least one of the West Indian players. Meanwhile, the match meandered towards its blandly academic con- clusion. The opening partnership between Paul Terry (60) and Ja- son Laney (29) was pleasant enough as was the cultured innings of John Stephenson (49). Matthew Keech (41) also batted well before falling to a rash, top-edged pull against Keith Arthurton. By now the West Indians had handed over their attack - for want of a better word - to their spinners, whose persistent and gentle use shepherded play towards an agreed draw. Source :: The Electronic Telegraph (http://www.telegraph.co.uk) Contributed by The Management (help@*ogi.edu)