\n<\/p>\n
All-rounder Matt Critchley led Essex to a three-day innings victory over to give new Hampshire head coach Russell Domingo a bad start in the County Championship.<\/b><\/p>\n
Stand-in captain Sam Cook had picked up three first-innings scalps as Hampshire were rolled for 156. And after being asked to follow-on, the hosts could only manage 168 to lose by an innings and 137 runs, with Critchley picking up 5-9 after scoring a century earlier in the match.<\/p>\n
Essex, who only won three times in a disappointing 2025, become the first team to win in 2026 as they claimed 22 points, with Hampshire securing just two.<\/p>\n
No one had fewer batting points than Hampshire in the 2025 County Championship, which almost led to them getting relegated.<\/p>\n
Adi Birrell had departed after the season and was replaced by former South Africa chief Domingo. And if he didn’t know the depth of his challenge, he does now.<\/p>\n
The challenge of Porter, Cook and Snater was too much for them in the day two gloom as they slipped to 48-3 in less than 15 overs \u2013 after Essex had been able to breeze to 461-7 declared.<\/p>\n
The morning continued in the same vein, albeit under far bluer skies, as Hampshire lost four wickets for 17 runs.<\/p>\n
Jake Lehmann only faced seven more deliveries, and added only a swished boundary to his overnight 30, before he attempted to cut a ball to close to him to give Porter his first wicket of the season.<\/p>\n
Ben Brown left a straight ball from Cook, before Liam Dawson edged Porter behind when grappling with a delivery outside the off stump.<\/p>\n
Teenage debutant Ben Mayes struck a pair of eye-catching boundaries before Snater pinned him in front, and Codi Yusuf followed after fellow South African Wiaan Mulder snuck a ball into middle stump.<\/p>\n
The tail vaguely wagged with top-scorer Kyle Abbott and Eddie Jack reach 30s in a 48-run partnership for the ninth wicket. But the spinners ended things either side of lunch.<\/p>\n
Simon Harmer and Critchley had Abbott and Sonny Baker, respectively, leg before to end a dismal batting performance. The follow-on was enforced with a lead of 305.<\/p>\n
Hampshire were careering towards a three-day defeat when Joe Weatherley edged the fourth ball of the second dig behind.<\/p>\n
But Gubbins and Prest provided some respite from the wickets with an 81-run stand, which was amassed serenely as Essex’s new ball didn’t zip around.<\/p>\n
Prest was positive \u2013 as he shook off his poor 2025 \u2013 with 10 confident boundaries to collect a half-century.<\/p>\n
But there was the looming presence of Harmer, on a pitch which was moving for subtle spin to dangerous turn.<\/p>\n
The South African, in his 10th season at Essex, had been introduced in the ninth over but it wasn’t until after tea in the 24th that he began to become a major threat.<\/p>\n
Prest fell for 55 as he was lbw to the off-spinner when shuffling across his stumps.<\/p>\n
Cook paused the Harmer domination when Lehmann was strangled down the legside, before Brown was undone by a floaty delivery and chopped on.<\/p>\n
Mayes was bowled through the gate and while Harmer was switching ends after 21 overs, Critchley’s drag-down was dragged on Dawson.<\/p>\n
Critchley, who scored 173 with the bat, then had Yusuf lbw. Gubbins had soaked up 161-balls of pressure over almost two hours before turning Critchley to short leg with four overs left in the day.<\/p>\n
Critchley rounded things off on a successful trip from Chelmsford when Jack was bowled and Baker skied to mid-on.<\/p>\n
Report by ECB Reporters’ Network, supported by Rothesay.<\/i><\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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All-rounder Matt Critchley led Essex to a three-day innings victory over to give new Hampshire head coach Russell Domingo a bad start in the County Championship. Stand-in captain Sam Cook had picked up three first-innings scalps as Hampshire were rolled for 156. And after being asked to follow-on, the hosts could only manage 168 to<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":12250,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12249","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cricket"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12249","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12249"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12249\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/12250"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12249"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12249"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12249"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}