Essex gained their second win of the season in the County Championship when they beat Hampshire by 384 runs at Southampton.

The victory set a new county record and beat the previous highest winning runs margin of 350 set in 1991 against Cambridge University.

And for the sorry Hampshire outfit that were bowled out for 149 in 33 overs, it was their biggest defeat on record surpassing the 380 runs reverse by Surrey in 1896.

Essex had set the home side a target of 534 runs but the innings proved a sorry catalogue of destruction that failed to last beyond one session of play.

Skipper Ronnie Irani said: "It was a great result for us and I'm chuffed with the margin of victory.

"We outplayed Hampshire in every session of the match and they can have no complaints, particularly as they put us into bat on then opening day.

"Obviously Will Jefferson's 200-plus put us on the winning path but I'd also like to single out Andre Adams for special praise because his bowling performance was awesome.

"All our bowlers have performed exceptionally in this game. Darren Gough showed he's still a brilliant new ball bowler and it was great to see Ashley Cowan back to his old form.

"Graham Napier also showed that he's continuing his development as a seriously good cricketer."

Hampshire were in trouble form the outset when Darren Gough nipped a delivery back into opener Michael Brown in the third over.

And from thereon it was one disaster after another for Shane Warne's men who had started the match in second place in Division Two.

Rotating his bowlers skilfully, Ronnie Irani received the perfect response from his pace attack with the wickets shared amongst the four-pronged seam line-up.

When Andre Adams replaced Gough at the Pavilion End after five overs from the England man, it took the Kiwi only eight deliveries to add to Hampshire's problems by having his namesake Jimmy well caught by Ashley Cowan low down at first slip.

In the next over, and having replaced Ashley Cowan, it was Graham Napier who responded to his captain's call by encouraging John Crawley to follow a moving a ball away off the seam to give second slip Will Jefferson a chance that was gleefully accepted.

And two overs later, Napier found a full-length ball that kept low to beat Derek Kenway. With the innings falling apart at the seam, Nic Pothas decided to attempt a repair mission by a positive approach.

That brought him a couple of quick boundaries before Cowan, who had been re-introduced for Napier, encouraged another loose drive from the batsman who only succeeded on this occasion to deflect the ball to James Foster behind the stumps.

The innings was now in disarray with half the side back in the pavilion for 84 runs in less than 20 overs and with only four more added, a woeful effort became totally abject as the next four wickets fell in 26 balls without a run being scored as the beleaguered ship became hopelessly marooned.

Published Friday August 6, 2004

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