After Andre Adams had produced a devastating spell of bowling to rip the heart out of the Hampshire batting, an unbeaten 63 from Paul Grayson placed Essex in a seemingly impregnable position at the end of the second day's play in the County Championship fixture with Hampshire at Southampton.
New Zealander Adams took three wickets in four deliveries during the afternoon session to leave the home side reeling on 122-6 before his pace colleagues cleaned out the tail to give Essex a first innings lead of 239 runs.
Skipper Ronnie Irani decided against enforcing the follow-on and by the close, his side had stretched their overall lead to 355 runs with seven wickets intact.
That included Grayson who countered any vagaries in the pitch to reach a merited half-century from 87 deliveries that included four boundaries.
But it was Adams' feats with the ball that forged the visitors dominant position.
He was re-introduced into the attack 30 minutes after lunch with the scoreboard showing 122-3 but by the end of his first over, the innings was in tatters.
With his second delivery, he drew Derek Kenway forward and found the edge of the bat to give James Foster a regulation catch behind the stumps.
New batsman Nic Pothas came and went, nicking his first ball behind the wicket and although Dimitri Mascarenhas prevented the hat-trick, his fate was sealed the next delivery when the bowler uprooted his middle stump with a ball that kept low on a wicket of uneven bounce.
Only Maldon-born John Crawley batted with any confidence, using his experience and expertise displaying the steely determination that was lacking elsewhere.
He came to the crease at the fall of the first wicket when Michael Brown slashed at a ball from Darren Gough and was well held by Adams at gully.
Crawley saw seven wickets fall before he finally succumbed when, having faced 130 balls to reach 55, he nibbled outside off stump to give Andy Flower a regulation slip catch.
Hampshire were dismissed in less than two sessions but Irani opted to bat again, reasoning that the pitch would only deteriorate further thus foregoing the unwelcome possibility of having to bat last and face the menace of Shane Warne on a difficult wicket.
Published Thursday August 5, 2004
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