Hoggard shines in Yorks win

Matthew Hoggard helped Yorkshire secure victory

Yorkshire romped to an innings victory over Hampshire to begin their 2008 LV County Championship campaign in style.

Opening bowlers Matthew Hoggard and Deon Kruis shared three wickets inside as many overs with the second new ball as Yorkshire won the contest by an innings and 27 runs with more than 56 overs remaining on the final day.

Kruis had Greg Lamb well held at first slip by Jacques Rudolph to put the home side on the verge of victory.

Fittingly, however, it was Hoggard who wrapped things up, striking either side of that dismissal, to take his match haul to 8-97.

He struck with the fifth delivery of a new spell when Chris Tremlett was turned around by an outswinger and wicketkeeper Gerard Brophy grasped a one-handed catch.

And it was all over at 2.15pm when Shane Bond re-directed a fullish delivery into middle-stump.

Once Yorkshire finally ended Michael Brown’s stubborn resistance moments before lunch, the wickets came in a clatter.

Beginning the final day of the County Championship contest requiring half-a-dozen dismissals, Yorkshire sent back overnight pair Brown and Nic Pothas in the first session.

Opener Brown’s six-hour vigil was terminated five minutes before lunch, which was taken at 191 for six, when Ajmal Shahzad found the outside edge for Rudolph to accept his third slip catch of the match.

Hoggard and Yorkshire celebrate against Hampshire

Kruis bowled Nic Pothas via an inside-edge as Hampshire, resuming 103 runs in arrears, toddled along at less than three runs per over.

Pothas was dropped at second slip by Yorkshire’s stand-in captain Anthony McGrath after flashing at a wide delivery from Kruis.

But he had not added to his 37 when, in Kruis’ next over from the rugby stand end, one jagged back into leg-stump.

Burnley-born Brown was the main obstruction to Yorkshire in their push for a win at the first attempt, following a couple of driven boundaries through the off-side with a pulled four off Tim Bresnan in the first hour of play.

His only scare early on came in the third over of the morning when, without addition to the overnight score, he survived a confident appeal for lbw from Hoggard.

McGrath on Friday night accepted his side faced something of a race against time to force a result with bad weather in the region on Saturday.

As a consequence of that, Yorkshire rattled through their overs on the fourth morning, sending down 28 despite a 17-minute interruption for rain.

And they applied the accelerator after the interval as the final four wickets tumbled in just over half-an-hour.

Hampshire captain Dimitri Mascarenhas succumbed to a static waft at Shahzad to provide Brophy with a first catch of the contest.

And it took just 17 deliveries with the new ball for the match to hurry to its conclusion, with Yorkshire claiming 21 points for a first victory over Hampshire for six years.