Adams steers Hawks home

Jimmy Adams hit a career-best one-day score of 86 to see Hampshire to a comfortable five-wicket NatWest Pro40 win over Somerset at Taunton.

Billy Taylor took 3-23 to help restrict the home side to 197 for eight, after they had won the toss on a slow pitch for this Division One match.

James Hildreth top-scored with 47, while Wes Durston contributed 42 and Justin Langer 40.

Three overs were lost to rain during Hampshire’s reply, and their revised target was 186 off 37.

Adams ensured that was never in doubt, hitting eight fours in his 98-ball innings and receiving good support from Michael Carberry and Chris Benham as the Hawks won with seven balls to spare.

The victory took Hampshire above Somerset in the table, and a third defeat in five games for the Sabres almost certainly rules them out as title contenders.

Billy Taylor had figures of 3-23 for Hampshire © Getty Images

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Marcus Trescothick looked in supreme form when Somerset began their innings - but scoring was never as easy after he skied to mid-on and departed for 25 off just 13 balls - having hit four fours and a six.

Langer faced 55 deliveries in all, and the home side quickly lost momentum as Craig Kieswetter could make only five from his 24 balls - batting at three.

Taylor removed Langer and Zander de Bruyn to make it 87 for four, before the best partnership of the innings between Hildreth and Durston. They took heavy toll on leg-spinner Imran Tahir, whose six overs cost 47.

Hildreth picked gaps in the field and found the boundary only twice in his fluent 53-ball knock - while Durston hit two fours and a six. The stand of 82 was characterised by some swift running between the wickets.

Teenager Liam Dawson bowled Hildreth behind his legs sweeping and also saw off Arul Suppiah for figures of 2-10 from three overs of left-arm spin.

The pitch was the one used for last week’s championship match against Surrey, and 197 appeared a par total - particularly once Steffan Jones removed Michael Lumb with the Hampshire reply on only 17.

But Carberry timed the ball well in helping Adams add 51 for the second wicket, before stepping across his stumps and falling lbw to Charl Willoughby - the pick of the Somerset bowlers.

Adams reached a chanceless fifty off 66 balls, with five fours, and he and Benham comfortably maintained the required rate.

Benham was eventually stumped off Omari Banks. But by then the Hawks needed only 23 off more than five overs, and Dawson came in to deposit off-spinner Durston over wide long-on for six to end any lingering doubts about the outcome.