Runs galore at Newclose ahead of Hampshire-Nottinghamshire county championship match. [Dave Reynolds]
It’s little more than a fortnight now before the Isle of Wight’s county ground at Newclose, on the outskirts of Newport, hosts Hampshire’s Specsavers County Championship match against Stuart Broad’s Nottinghamshire.
If statistics from the first two days of the current Second XI duel between Hampshire and Middlesex at Blackwater Road are to be any guide, then cricket fans are set for a run fest when the four-day match against Nottinghamshire begins on Monday May 20.
A staggering 1,200 runs have been scored so far – Monday’s Second XI Trophy match seeing Middlesex IIs chase down Hampshire’s 307-5 to win by five wickets: the game yielding a total of 617 runs for the loss of only ten wickets.
Then, on the opening day of the Second XI Championship match between the respective counties, Hampshire piled up 403-7, taking the two-day aggregate to 1,200 runs !
James Harris (128) and Max Holden (118) shared a double-century partnership to steer Middlesex to victory in the 50-over white ball match, youngsters Felix Organ (91), Harry Came (88) and Ollie Soames (70) scoring the lion’s share of the Hampshire total.
Soames and Organ then weighed in with centuries as Hampshire scored 403-7 at the end of the first day’s play in the Second XI Championship match.
Opener Soames, in excellent early season form, struck 117 (1 six, 13 fours), with Organ, 104 not out overnight, going on to make 127 before Hampshire’s innings closed at 432 all out. Organ was eventually the last wicket to fall, having hit two maximums and 19 fours.
If statistics from the first two days of the current Second XI duel between Hampshire and Middlesex at Blackwater Road are to be any guide, then cricket fans are set for a run fest when the four-day match against Nottinghamshire begins on Monday May 20.
A staggering 1,200 runs have been scored so far – Monday’s Second XI Trophy match seeing Middlesex IIs chase down Hampshire’s 307-5 to win by five wickets: the game yielding a total of 617 runs for the loss of only ten wickets.
Then, on the opening day of the Second XI Championship match between the respective counties, Hampshire piled up 403-7, taking the two-day aggregate to 1,200 runs !
James Harris (128) and Max Holden (118) shared a double-century partnership to steer Middlesex to victory in the 50-over white ball match, youngsters Felix Organ (91), Harry Came (88) and Ollie Soames (70) scoring the lion’s share of the Hampshire total.
Soames and Organ then weighed in with centuries as Hampshire scored 403-7 at the end of the first day’s play in the Second XI Championship match.
Opener Soames, in excellent early season form, struck 117 (1 six, 13 fours), with Organ, 104 not out overnight, going on to make 127 before Hampshire’s innings closed at 432 all out. Organ was eventually the last wicket to fall, having hit two maximums and 19 fours.
