{"id":13249,"date":"2026-04-17T23:36:19","date_gmt":"2026-04-17T22:36:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/?p=13249"},"modified":"2026-04-17T23:36:19","modified_gmt":"2026-04-17T22:36:19","slug":"county-championship-somerset-take-control-against-hampshire","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/?p=13249","title":{"rendered":"County Championship: Somerset take control against Hampshire"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\"><b class=\"ssrcss-1xjjfut-BoldText e5tfeyi3\">James Rew continued his exceptional start to the County Championship season to keep England selectors&#8217; attention on a day where 13 wickets fell at Utilita Bowl.<\/b><\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Somerset wicketkeeper Rew began the season with 64, 122 and 48 before adding another half-century to back his bowlers striking Hampshire out for 238.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Jake Lehmann had been Hampshire&#8217;s lone batting star by striking 76, as Craig Overton and the fit-again Lewis Gregory picked up three wickets each.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Rew, batting at number four, then replied with 77 not out by the close &#8211; with an average over 100 for the campaign &#8211; as Somerset ended the day trailing their hosts by just 84 runs.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Hampshire captain Ben Brown chose to bat first but regular wickets against a nagging bowling attack stemmed his ambitions of getting a large first-innings total.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Toby Albert was preferred to Joe Weatherley \u2013 who had only managed 16 runs in four innings this season \u2013 and looked punchy and busy at the crease.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Albert has traditionally had a Jekyll and Hyde approach to his batting in different formats. His aggressive and inventive T20 style helped him be the leading run scorer in the Vitality Blast last season.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Whereas in the Championship, he had gained a reputation as a blocker. Here, scoring 42, he found a middle ground between the two approaches \u2013 to give the suggestion he may be the answer to Hampshire&#8217;s long-term opening bat conundrum.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">The Somerset bowlers had zipped the new ball through, finding Nick Gubbins offering a head high catch to third slip, and Tom Prest edging to wicketkeeper Rew.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">But Gregory&#8217;s introduction began Hampshire&#8217;s slide from a respectable 72-2 to 126-7.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Gregory missed the first two rounds of the season with a pectoral injury and struck in his fourth over when Albert pushed behind, and then in his following over, got Ben Brown frustrated and drew a jabbed edge.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Those two overs turned the momentum towards the visitors, as Ben Mayes, Liam Dawson and Codi Yusuf departed within 22 balls of each other \u2013 with Overton picking up the second two of the trio.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Facing a sub-200 score, Hampshire&#8217;s tail wagged, with Lehmann acting as the shepherd.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Lehmann, who is the son of Australian great Darren but qualifies as a domestic player due to his UK Passport, put on 43 with Kyle Abbott and 62 with Eddie Jack.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">The South Australian scored 76 and 92 in the victory against Yorkshire last week and through crisp hitting, followed it up with another 76.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Archie Vaughan pilfered the last two wickets to bowl Hampshire out for 238 \u2013 with Rew ending up with four catches to underline his all-round prowess.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Somerset&#8217;s reply started with a stutter as Josh Thomas tickled Yusuf behind to the seventh ball of the innings, and then Tom Lammonby mistimed a drive off Abbott to Albert at second slip.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">But Vaughan \u2013 who came into last week&#8217;s win at Essex as a replacement to win the match with a breezy 41 \u2013 saw off the new ball with Rew.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">And even though Vaughan hooked a Sonny Baker bouncer straight to long leg, the foundation was set for Tom Abell and Rew to fly through the gears and make a sizable dent into Hampshire&#8217;s total.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Rew was at his dominant best with wristy flicks and luscious drives to set himself up for a big total on day two.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\"><i class=\"ssrcss-xbdn93-ItalicText e5tfeyi2\">Report by ECB Reporters&#8217; Network, supported by Rothesay.<\/i><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><br \/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>James Rew continued his exceptional start to the County Championship season to keep England selectors&#8217; attention on a day where 13 wickets fell at Utilita Bowl. Somerset wicketkeeper Rew began the season with 64, 122 and 48 before adding another half-century to back his bowlers striking Hampshire out for 238. Jake Lehmann had been Hampshire&#8217;s<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":13250,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13249","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\/13249","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=13249"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13249\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/13250"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13249"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13249"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13249"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}