Nice attempt at a pun Beeb, unfortunately his name is Alsop... "Will Vince prove Abell behind the stumps? Hampshire 525-8 dec v Essex 47-2 An unusual double at the Ageas Bowl where Hampshire keeper Tom Abell has injured his hand, and skipper James Vince has donned the gloves."
Couldn't realistically have hoped for a better first session. With no Wheater, we're one wicket away from the bowlers. And Harmer is the only one who can bat.
Providing we take the final 5 wickets tomorrow it will be a sensational start to the season. 24 points, a superb batting display and excellent bowling.
The only potential dampener is the injury to Tom Alsop. Still it wouldn't be early season at Hants without an injury or four. I wonder how Mason Crane is coming along, is he fit again yet?
We have McManus so we'll be fine. We need the likes of Vince, Northeast and Markram fit and in form. That's a hell of a top order when in form as Essex found out.
That´s a fine victory for Hampshire against one of the best teams in the división. Now to conquer Surrey, whenever that particular fixture occurs!!!!
Yeah Crane is fit. He played in pre-season. It's just that there's no need to play two spinners (especially one out-and-out spinner) in early April. It's a shame that Crane can't hold a bat - as with leggies like Warne or Rashid - because otherwise we could bring him in for Weatherley in due course, without really weakening the batting. That really would give us a whole range of bowling options.
It's not a disaster if we're without Alsop at the end of the week vs Yorkshire. As Tom says, McManus can come in for in. The potential issue for me is that the one-day comp starts a week on Wednesday - and is absolutely full on thereafter. As we saw with Northeast and Dawson last season, you only need to pick up a month-long injury and you miss the entire group stage. Alsop is good enough in one-day cricket to play just as a batter, let alone as a keeper; it's easily his best format. And to that you throw in that McManus isn't a particularly good batsman, and it's something of a double-whammy if Alsop misses out. Fingers crossed (no pun intended) he's OK.
As expected, Hants are unchanged apart from the enforced replacement of Alsop with McManus at WK. Weather is set fair and Yorkshire won the toss and will bat, getting both nemesis Gary Ballance and England Captain, Joe Root out before lunch would be a big bonus. Edit: live stream on youtube...finally..
