Carberry and Brown star for Hants

A record stand between Michael Carberry and Michael Brown evoked memories of Gordon Greenidge and Barry Richards as Hampshire maintained their Championship challenge.

Hampshire's only other visit to Kidderminster, in 1971, was memorable for a stand of 113 between the county's fabled opening pair in a drawn Championship match.

But Carberry and Brown bettered that in Hampshire's second innings by putting on 199 in 47 overs as relegated Worcestershire were set a colossal 532 to win.

Not so long ago, Hampshire were struggling to find a reliable opening pair. Carberry and Brown will be the first to admit they are not the next Richards and Greenidge, but they are Hampshire's best duo since Paul Terry and Chris Smith and have been the county's stand-out batsmen this year.

After putting on 111 in Hampshire's first innings, they did even better when Shane Warne decided against enforcing the follow on.

Before yesterday, Hampshire's highest stand of the season by any pair was the second-wicket, first-innings alliance of 142 between Brown and Jimmy Adams two days earlier.

Carberry and Brown were only five runs short of Hampshire's record first-wicket partnership against Worcestershire, which remains the 204 by George Brown and Alec Bowell at Portsmouth in 1920, when Ray Price struck in successive overs after lunch.

Brown (88) was 26 runs short of reaching 1,000 first-class runs in a season for the first time when he gloved an attempted pull against the Zimbabwean slow left-armer and was comfortably caught by Steven Davies in the third over of the afternoon session.

In Price's next over, an attempted cut from Carberry was well caught by Graeme Hick, the only slip, but only after the left-hander had become the eighth post-war Hampshire batsman to score twin hundreds in a Championship match.

John Crawley and Michael Clarke have both done so against Nottinghamshire in recent seasons but that pair of Greenidge (3) and Richards (2) are the only Hampshire batsmen to have achieved the feat more than once.

There have been 22 instances in all and Trevor Jesty (1984) and John Greig (1905) are the only Hampshire batsmen to have hit more than one hundred in a match against Worcestershire.

But the most salient statistic is that Carberry's 120 (158 balls) was his fourth hundred of the season and takes him past Brown as Hampshire's most prolific century-maker this year.

Carberry missed the start of the season through injury but his four hundreds have been scored in his last 12 innings - and three have been against Worcestershire, who have now been on the receiving end of half of Carberry's eight Championship tons.

The 26-year-old was still wearing a black armband in memory of his late grandfather Clarence, who died of cancer in Barbados on the eve of this match, as he cut, pulled and drove with precision in hitting a flagging Worcestershire attack for 20 fours.

After he and Brown had laid the foundations, John Crawley and Jimmy Adams put on 162 in just 18 overs before Warne eventually declared at 376-2.

Adams, who struck a match-winning 127 not out in a second XI Trophy tie on the same ground in 2003, maintained his affection for Kidderminster by blitzing an unbeaten 82 (58 balls).

He reached his fifty by hitting Price for two of his three sixes in succession, while Crawley improvised during an unbeaten 75 (55 balls) as the third-wicket pair rattled along at nine an over.

There was hope of a three-day finish before Worcestershire reached 158-4 at the close, but Hampshire should win comfortably today.

Worcestershire's top order is without Phil Jaques, who has returned to Australia, and Vikram Solanki, who is with England, and Hampshire only need a further five wickets as Ben Smith's right index finger was broken by a James Tomlinson delivery on Wednesday.

Their absence ensured a Championship debut for Moeen Ali, the brother of Kadeer and cousin of Kabir, who ensured this match went into the fourth day with an unbeaten 73.

Warne looked increasingly threatening as the shadows lengthened, trapping Steven Davies lbw with ten overs of the day remaining.

Shaun Udal dismissed the openers either side of tea, while James Tomlinson took the prize scalp of Hick, a prolific run-scorer for Kidderminster as a teenager, for the second time in as many days.

Worcestershire will begin the final day needing a further 374 for what would be a record-breaking win.

Their inexperienced batsmen must feel like rookie mountaineers standing at the foot of Everest as the record fourth-innings chase to win a Championship match is the 502-6 made by Middlesex against Nottinghamshire 82 years ago.

Later today, Hampshire should join Sussex and either Durham or Lancashire as the three best-placed sides in the race for the Championship title as Yorkshire are struggling at Hove and there is sure to be a winner at Blackpool.