SIMPLE: Simon Renshaw celebrates the end of the Worcestershire innings.
WHAT price Hampshire's second PPP County Championship win of the season if it brings a complaint to the RSPCA
Hampshire wrapped up a seven-wicket win over Worcestershire but not before a willing workhorse was almost cruelly flogged by its master.
Alamgir Sheriyar had the carrot reward of finishing the match with ten wickets but the poor bloke finished on the losing side with severe welts on his back from the stick he received.
Like the donkeys on the treadmill at Carisbrooke Castle, Sheriyar's marathon effort produced the equivalent of a bucket-full of water for his team who were comprehensively outplayed.
Stephen Rhodes and Chris Liptrot held Hampshire up for four overs and added 18 runs before Liptrot fell in iffy circumstances.
Attempting to pull a short Simon Renshaw delivery, the ball apeared to cannon off Liptrot's shoulder to Will Kendall at third slip.
He was given out and had to be shepherded off the field by Rhodes as he attempted to make his feelings known to umpire Nigel Plews.
Hampshire were left with 91 runs to dust off for victory, and Rhodes immediately threw the new ball to Sheriyar. Having sent down 40 overs for his seven first-innings wickets, Sheriyar delivered a further 16, interrupted only by lunch.
Sheriyar has a 30-yard run-up, so walking back to his mark and then running in, my abacus reckons he covered about eleven-and-a-half miles during the match - half of it at top speed.
He was still running in at the end, and found enough to produce a brute of a delivery with a ball 28 overs old to have Robin Smith fending it off to Ruben Spiring at second slip.
It was a tremendous effort by Sheriyar, who had piece-meal support from his teammates, in direct contrast to Hamp-shire whose win epitomised their togetherness.
Sheriyar also claimed the wickets of John Stephenson and Giles White but they never even registered a ripple on the seismograph, so rock-solid were Hampshire in their stroll to victory.
Kendall saw it through to the end, sensibly taking no risks but punishing anything loose in his unbeaten 39.
And although Hampshire will meet stiffer opposition this season than a depleted Worcestershire, at least they will pull as a team and not let one willing nag bear the load.
Converted for the new archive on 25 January 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.
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