Date-stamped : 03 Jun97 - 06:16 Moles enjoys feast of runs By Charles Randall at Southampton First day of four: Warwicks 351-2 v Hampshire ANDY MOLES, once pausing for a ham sandwich and a tin of Coke at the crease, batted for nearly the whole day for 168 at the County Ground and ensured his Warwickshire team gained their first batting points of the season. Warwickshire`s portly captain may be rather unconventional when it comes to nutrition but his batting yesterday was orthodox and unadventurous in the extreme as he sought to give his side the advantage. Something different was needed to prise him out, and it happened to be a long hop in the 100th over which he pulled tamely to square leg. The bowler was Derek Kenway with only his third ball - memorable on his debut for an 18-year-old better known at Hambledon as a wicketkeeper. Hampshire`s attack, even against an underachieving batting side, rarely looked better than flimsy, especially in the absence of their captain, John Stephenson, who was recovering from wrist surgery. Apart from Nick Knight`s lively 81, Warwickshire did not exploit a glassy outfield and a very short boundary in front of the flats quite as much as Hampshire might have feared, though their advantage at the close was clear. Moles and Knight sped away in the morning with quick fifties and over-confidence was the main obstacle they faced. Moles had an early let-off, snicking Jim Bovill between second and third slip, who stood like statues. But after that he ground on ruthlessly. David Hemp was dropped badly on 18 at long leg - the ball rebounding from the luckless Bovill`s hands on to his nose - and the left-hander survived a simple run-out off the last ball before tea when he slipped in mid-pitch. Bovill threw to the wrong end and Giles White`s throw was too wide to beat Hemp`s recovery. Hampshire were left to regret it at their leisure. Source :: The Electronic Telegraph (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/) Hayden gives suffering Hants hope of escape By Charles Randall at Southampton Second day of four: Hants (172-3) trail Warwicks (631-7 dec) by 459 HAMPSHIRE conceded the biggest total made against them by any- one at the County Ground since 1923, but Matthew Hayden in reply pro- duced the authority in adversity that had been missing this summer. The Australian, with questions to answer about his form in England, went through to 81 at the close to give a suffering Hampshire side hope of saving this game. He would have had one run more without Trevor Penney`s sliding stop on the pavilion boundary, a thudding collision with a perimeter board smashing someone`s pint glass. Whether the run saved was worth a Carlsberg in an ocean of runs, only time will tell. David Graveney, the chairman of the England selectors, visited the ground for the evening session, most probably to see how well Ashley Giles could use a pitch allowing some turn for the spin- ners. Graveney had missed some impressive all-round cricket from Graeme Welch, who followed up his fluent 75 with some brisk-medi- um out-swingers, but Giles seemed the man most likely to make in- roads. However the left-armer was milked for runs. The left-handed Hayden played him almost to perfection, occasionally advancing down the pitch to drive, and he went past his second successive championship fifty, this time in 85 balls. Welch accounted for Giles White with his swing in the fourth over and he scored a cluster of moral victories over Robin Smith, one edge flying through the gully area in the last over before tea, during which Smith struck four boundaries. Darren Altree, a left-armer with a distinctive shoulder turn and bustling pace, returned to take the crucial wicket, Smith cut- ting high to cover where Penney took a neat left-handed catch. Welch`s morning batting had been inspired. He pulled Cardigan Connor for an early six and struck 13 fours in his 75, allowing David Hemp time to grind to his first hundred for Warwickshire. It took Hemp 256 balls, extraordinarily slow in these condi- tions, but the landmark was regarded as a necessary part of his agenda while coming to grips with his new career at Edgbaston. Nick Knight declared at 3.20pm; a few minutes longer and the Southampton all-comers highest total of 642, set by Middlesex, would have been reached. Source :: The Electronic Telegraph (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/) Hants discover a new hero in Hayden By Paul Weaver at Southampton Third day of four: Hants (549-6) trail Warwicks (631-7 dec) by 82 runs HAMPSHIRE have been entertaining some of their gnarled war- riors in this match, members of their championship-winning sides of 1961 and 1973, such as Peter Sainsbury and Richard Gilliat, so it was appropriate they should discover a new hero yesterday. In his seven previous first-class innings Matthew Hayden had scored just 150 runs, which tended to confirm the wis- dom of Australia`s selectors in omitting him from this season`s Ashes series. Yesterday, how- ever, he was not so much a hero as a Horatio, as almost single-handedly he fought off the threat of the follow-on. For this, the Hampshire players should have been equipped with crampons and pulleys at the start of play. Chasing a target of 482, after Warwickshire`s epic 631 for seven declared, they re- sumed yesterday on 172 for three, still requiring a further 310. Hayden was 81 not out. At lunch, when Hampshire had moved to 288 for five, he was beaten on 132 and at tea when his side were fal- tering at 389 for six, he was 178 not out. On Friday Hayden, who once wanted to be a peanut farmer before he discovered bigger nuts to crack, had been dropped by David Hemp at bat-pad after scoring just five. This was the score Mark Tay- lor, another out-of-form Australian opener, was out for yesterday. Perhaps Taylor was more in need of this good fortune. Warwickshire are without the injured Allan Donald and Tim Munton, and this is the flattest of pitches. But Hayden`s innings was still heroic for its stamina, concentration and re- straint. Hayden and his overnight partner Will Kendall batted for two hours in the morning before Warwickshire broke through. Then Kendall clipped Graeme Welch to square leg where Andy Moles seized a low catch. Derek Kenway`s debut innings was an anti- climax. He played hesitant- ly forward for five minutes before he lost his off stump shoul- dering arms. The spirited Welch, capped a week ago, was again the bowler. In Shaun Udal, Hayden found a more lasting partner. By tea the off-spinner had reached a comfortable 28 and after the inter- val he went on to reach his own half-century as Hampshire moved on past 400. When Udal pulled Hemp behind square for four it raised the hundred partnership in 24 overs and Hampshire were just 36 runs short of avoiding the follow-on. Source :: The Electronic Telegraph (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/) Hayden builds a monument By Charles Randall at Southampton Warwickshire (631-7 dec & 252-1 dec) drew with Hampshire (549-6 dec & 274-9) IT LOOKED like becoming a bumper net session for Matthew Hay- den and useful batting practice all round. Instead, Warwickshire al- most won against the odds in a game that dipped uncomfortably close to farce here yesterday. The word `disrepute` even sprang to mind. Though Warwickshire went close to a third consecutive win - they had 43 balls at Hamp- shire`s last pair - neither side deserved to win a match that had been allowed to drift on a sleepy pitch. The game goes into history solely as a monument to Hayden`s achievements. The Australian became only the second batsman to score a double and single hundred for Hampshire in the same match, C P Mead being the other, in 1921 at Horsham. His two innings were top class in the game`s context, saving Hampshire`s bacon in the first innings and pushing them on the right road to victory in the second, until he holed out at long off. It was hardly his fault his team-mates lost their way. The trouble was that The Management of the match by the two captains was questionable. No play was lost to the weather, so it should have been unnecessary for Hampshire to feed 252 to their opponents with joke bowling yesterday morning. Robin Smith, Hampshire`s captain, spoilt a laudable fightback by refusing to declare until Saturday`s close of play. Closure an hour or so earlier was the only reasonable option. A target was duly contrived, 335 to win in what proved to be 72 overs against depleted bowling. Warwickshire lost Darren Altree with a side strain, with Ashley Giles rejoining the game after a hospital check-up on a sore right shin. Graeme Welch and Dougie Brown earned plus points for Warwick- shire with their lively seam bowling, and Hayden impressed. As for the rest of the game: so what? Source :: The Electronic Telegraph (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/) Contributed by The Management (help@cricinfo.com)