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Warren Hegg was nursing sore hands in Southampton today after a blistering spell of bowling by Andy Flintoff.

``That's the quickest I've kept to for Lancashire, apart from Wasim Akram,'' said Hegg after 'Freddie' Flintoff produced his best ever bowling performance to send Hampshire tumbling towards the follow-on.

On a fast, bouncy Northlands Road pitch, Flintoff charged in from the City end and bowled with real pace and hostility to claim 4-24 in 10 overs.

He had former England star Robin Smith lbw then returned to send back John Stephenson, Dimitri Mascarenhas and Simon Francis as Hampshire tumbled fromn 164-4 to 180-9.

And all this after Lancashire had extended their first innings to 492 all out with 85 from Graham Lloyd and an unbeaten 45 from Ian Austin.

It left them within sight of a second consecutive maximum points victory which should take them into the top nine for the first time this season. For once Muttiah Muralitharan played a supporting role on a Southampton pitch designed specifically to blunt his threat, although he still dismissed Hampshire's top scorer Jason Laney for 49 and conceded only 21 runs from 12 overs.

But it was the seamers' day, with Austin claiming one wicket and Peter Martin three for 51 - while Glen Chapple was arguably the pick of the Lancashire attack yet did not take the wickets he deserved.

But it was the performance of Flintoff which really shocked Hampshire. He had only taken four championship wickets in the whole of the season, three of them at Leicester in May in his previous best bowling performance.

This, however, was an impressive demonstration of his all round ability and can't have done his England chances any harm.