Date-stamped : 06 May97 - 10:16 Hollioake masterminds victory By Christopher Martin-Jenkins at Southampton Surrey (228-9) bt Hants (63) by 165 runs THE practice of a coach lining up his fielders and bashing high catches at them is considered old-fashioned these days. It would have been the best preparation for this match, however. On a pitch which lacked pace and allowed just enough movement to make driving hazardous only Surrey`s captain, Adam Hollioake and Nadeem Shahid, his partner in a stand of 138, played substantial innings as Hampshire were eventually heavily outplayed. The sight of fielders wheeling below a descending cricket ball gave a shower-sprinkled day its central theme. There was some spectacularly good catching all day, as well as some shamefully loose batting, and Simon Renshaw, Hampshire`s strapping 23-year-old medium-pacer, can hardly have been able to believe his luck as one Surrey batsman after another launched the ball into a cloudy sky, each no doubt fondly imagining himself to be batting at the Oval where it is rather safer to swing through the line. Renshaw`s reward for his own accurate bowling and his team-mates` reliable catching was an analysis better than any returned by a Hampshire bowler in 26 years of Benson and Hedges cricket: six for 25. But for the verve of Surrey`s bowling and the ineptitude of his colleagues` batting it would surely have earned him the gold award, but it went instead to Hollioake for a solid and typically shrewd innings, worth 17 more than Hampshire`s eleven could muster between them. Hampshire have now lost all their six one-day games this season. Matthew Hayden has struggled so far and the captain, John Stephenson, will remember with pleasure yesterday only Renshaw`s success and his own remarkable over-the- shoulder catch after a 30-yard sprint and final dive. By the time he came in to bat, Hampshire`s innings was already in ruins against swing bowling of high class from Martin Bicknell, whose spell of three for 20 was interrupted only by a shower. Chris Lewis, Joey Benjamin and Ben Hollioake supported him well as the air became moist and the catches started to go to the wicketkeeper. James Knott, a chunkier version of his father, had already taken one of the skiers with a salmon leap before holding a beautiful catch, low to his left off an outside edge from Paul Whitaker. That made Hampshire 23 for five and though Surrey had themselves been 22 for four, the recovery carefully ensured by Hollioake and Shahid was something Hampshire, in their present mood of doubt, never looked like emulating. Surrey, noisy, confident and enjoying themselves, are already looking like one of those teams who produce a man for every occasion. Having lost to an unbeaten Kent, they are not certain to go through to the quarter-finals but the odds are that they will. A win against Sussex at Hove next Monday would make sure. Their start was deceptive. Having won the toss and chosen to bat, Alastair Brown spooned to extra-cover in the first over but Ben Hollioake got them going with elegant off drives for four and two off Renshaw before criss-crossing down the pitch to meet Rajesh Maru, who had opened, and lifting him with a languid swing of the bat into a garden behind the sight- screen. Four overs later Hollioake junior had sliced to third- man, Alec Stewart had missed a pull and Graham Thorpe departed to a catch off the inside edge. The captain and Shahid had no option but to get their heads down and they did so ably before Hollioake, cutting deftly, took the initiative and held it. Source :: The Electronic Telegraph (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/) Contributed by The Management (help@cricinfo.com)