Amid glorious sunshine at the Rose Bowl, Hampshire's 2ns XI cricketer's were put well under the cosh by Sussex's experienced seam bowlers at The Rose Bowl yesterday.
Resuming at 30-2, the young Hawks got off to the worst possible start as John Francis was out to the third ball of the morning from Paul Hutchison.
Things went from bad to worse then, as Jason Lewry produced some fast late in-swing, to take three more quick wickets.
He trapped Lawrence Prittipaul leg before, bowled an absolute jaffa to Greg Lamb, inducing a fine tickle behind, and knocked debutant Peter Hammond's off stump out of the ground as the 16 year-old misjudged the line.
Lewry and Hutchison, who between them have taken 524 first class wickets, bowled unchanged for nearly an hour and a half, in which time Hampshire were reduced to 47-6.
However, in the time of crisis , some extremely gutsy batting started a small rear-guard action, as Iain Brunnschweiler (46) and James Hibberd (55) batted for nearly three hours together, taking Hampshire up to 150.
They were eventually all out for 187, a deficit of 54, and Sussex made their way to 164-5 by the close.
James Bruce once again bowled superbly, picking up the early wicket of Ashley Wright, and trapping the dangerous Baz Zuiderant leg before when he was on 49.
Charlie Van der Gucht, although not as consistent as he would have liked, also picked up a brace of wickets in consecutive deliveries.
Prittipaul grabbed the fifth with a well-directed short ball at Carl Hopkinson.
Hampshire need a good morning's bowling or they could face a stiff chase on the deteriorating last-day wicket today.
l Hampshire had entered the first day of the match aiming for their third successive 2nd XI win having already beaten Surrey at Basingstoke and Somerset at Taunton.
Tuesday's play was fairly even when Hampshire bowling out Sussex for 241, and ending the day on 30-2.
Loughborough batsman Francis was welcomed back to the team for the first time this summer, but in-form Alex Morris failed a fitness test in the morning, and was replaced by highly-rated Academy batsman Hammond.
However, it was the bowlers who were called upon first, spear-headed by Bruce, who was clearly buoyed by his superb 1st X1 debut against Somerset last week, in making some early inroads.
The strong right-armer hit the deck hard, and was a constant threat to Sussex's top order, removing the top three men with the score on 48, with two leg befores and a caught behind, and finishing with 4/62.
Prittipaul and Hibberd both picked up two wickets, and Van der Gucht and James Hamblin one-a-piece, as the home side put together a sound performance.
Hamblin's wicket was one of note, as Lamb took an unbelievable one-handed diving catch at point to remove the dangerous Matt Bright just prior to lunch.
Hamblin joined Dominic Clapp at the top of the order, but the former got a fine edge behind for 11.
Clapp seemed particularly unlucky to be given run out against his former county in attempting a quick single.
But Francis and Prittipaul batted well in the fading light to make sure there were no further mishaps.
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