Date-stamped : 10 Aug97 - 11:43 Ramprakash holds firm By D J Rutnagur at Lord`s First day of four: Middlesex 212-3 v Hampshire MIDDLESEX`S prosperity at the end of a rain-shortened day rather masks the fact that but for another major innings by Mark Ram- prakash, 99 not out, they might have struggled, for neither Jacques Kallis nor Mike Gatting built on firmly laid foundations. Gatting, however, scored 47 handsomely as his share of a 128-run partnership with Ram- prakash. The pitch, used for Middlesex`s match against Sussex early in the season, looked as if it could be troublesome, but proved docile, even if rather slow. The Hampshire attack was plain, as it has been all season, and all three wickets were courtesy of the victims` errors. Paul Weekes was snared mishooking a bouncer from Simon Renshaw in the day`s sixth over. Kallis thrived on a liberal supply of over- pitched balls on his legs and struck seven fours before edging a drive at Stuart Milburn. Ramprakash`s innings, with 18 fours, was flawless. Driving up- pishly at Renshaw, Gatting gave a chance at 39 and eventually got out mistiming a pull at an innocuous ball from a non- regular bowler in Matthew Hayden. Source :: The Electronic Telegraph (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/) Hayden`s dismissal crucial to Middlesex By D J Rutnagur at Lord`s Second day of four: Hants (69-2) trail Middlesex (442-8dec) by 373 runs MIDDLESEX`S formidable total, the crux of which was a fourth- wicket partnership of 185 between Mark Ramprakash and Owais Shah, looked even more awesome when, five overs before the close, Matthew Hayden came to grief offering no stroke to off-spinner Keith Dutch. This was a significant blow because Hayden, far from appearing rusty after a fortnight`s break, looked ominously accomplished in launching Hampshire`s reply. However, Middlesex will have to toil hard to force home their ad- vantage, as help from the pitch does not look imminent. It is not conducive to strokeplay, but survival has not been a prob- lem. The only palpable instance of misbehaviour was when a ball from James Hewitt got up and defeated Jason Laney, who, having played three handsome off-side shots, lobbed a dolly to point. When play started after an hour`s delay, Ramprakash, despite being 99 overnight, was compelled to play watchfully before achieving fluency. Nevertheless, he punished the loose ball as readily as he had done on Wednesday to finish with his highest score of a fruitful sum- mer. Shah, who survived Ramprakash, tried to bat with a flourish, but the pitch forced him to graft for his runs. Released from his com- mitments with the England Under-19s and batting as high as No 5 for the first time, Shah played an innings which will have matured his pre- cocious talent. For their part, Hampshire bowled with great heart and disci- pline and runs were not easy to come by until the second new ball - which came on to the bat more readily - was taken. Shaun Udal`s dismissal of both Ramprakash and Shah underlined John Stephenson`s error in de- laying his entry into the attack. Source :: The Electronic Telegraph (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/) Middlesex v Hampshire Third day of four: Middlesex (442-8 dec & 91-1) lead Hampshire (306-5 dec) by 227 runs. LORD`S pitches for championship matches this season have all dis- pleased on various counts, with the current one being low and slow, writes D J Rutnagur. It has posed no threat to the batsmen`s survival but also per- mitted little freedom for strokeplay. From the bowlers` angle, it has been utterly soulless. The contest could only be kept alive by contrivance and Hamp- shire made the first move towards inviting a run chase today by declaring at tea 136 behind. During the final session, Middle- sex had to fight hard for runs. Hampshire were in a parlous state when Jacques Kallis, beating Robin Smith for pace, extracted his middle stump with easily the best ball of the match. Reduced to 148 for four, they were revived by two substantial partnerships in which Matthew Keech was the common factor with an unbeaten 78, a score he never reached during his three seasons with Middlesex. Keech`s role model in those formative years was Mike Gatting, and the maestro`s influence was apparent in his off-side drives. His main allies were Giles White, who batted well for 62, and John Stephenson, whose declaration deprived himself, by two runs, of his first 50 of what has been a lean season. As in many instances this match, a clip off the legs proved fatal for Paul Weekes when Middlesex batted. Source :: The Electronic Telegraph (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/) Middlesex`s voice raised in title debate By Clive Ellis at Lord`s Middx beat Hampshire by 217 runs MIDDLESEX made an articulate contribution to the great champi- onship debate yesterday. Yet they were more concerned with the pre- sent state of play than with the future shape of the compe- tition as they inflicted a thumping 217-defeat on Hampshire. If Middlesex can carry the same conviction into their last six matches, their rivals might as well throw in the cloth now. After three days of polite, chess-like exchanges on a slow pitch, there was an irrepressible quality to Middlesex`s cricket sadly comple- mented by Hampshire`s disintegration in the face of insistent seam bowl- ing. Middlesex are now 26 points behind the leaders with a game in hand, though at the back of their minds they must already be fearing that the four-run defeat at Kent`s hands two weeks ago was the point at which the championship slipped away from them. It is hard to pick a championship winner with any confidence. Glamorgan have led for much of the season on the strength of what appears to be the most reliable batting line-up and on the back of occasional inspiration from Waqar Younis. Kent`s batting, by contrast, has been frail, though their bowling at anything approaching full strength is formidable. Gloucester- shire have developed an impressive will to win, Es- sex have too often flattered to deceive in recent weeks, and if Leicestershire can convert more draws into victories they could still retain the title. Hampshire`s second innings, which began with realistic hopes of making 315 off a minimum of 77 overs, lasted less than 27 overs. Appropriately perhaps, given the big kick-off at 3pm, the fin- ish came at 2.58pm when Richard Johnson extracted Simon Renshaw`s mid- dle stump. The main plaudits must go to Angus Fraser, who was an impres- sive advertisement for birthday celebrations. He was 32 on Fri- day, but ran in with such enthusiasm that he could have been a 22-year-old making his first nervous strides in the game. He inflicted deep wounds on Hampshire in taking four for five in a 10-ball spell. Jason Laney, who had survived an inside edge for four, was caught behind in Fraser`s first over. His second accounted for Matthew Hayden, caught and bowled off a ball which appeared to stop a little, then Giles White was neatly taken by Owais Shah at short leg. Fraser`s fourth pre-lunch victim, crucially, was Robin Smith, leg before, and after the break he dismissed Matthew Keech before allowing Jamie Hewitt and Johnson to get in on the act. John Stephenson, who has given the impression in this game that he may at last be finding some form and confidence, and Adrian Aymes resisted for 11 overs, a major stand in the context of the innings as a whole. But the first over of Hewitt`s sec- ond spell hastened Hamp- shire`s demise. He had Stephenson caught in the gully, Shaun Udal was lbw two balls later and Hewitt took his third wicket in four balls when wicketkeeper Keith Brown moved sharply to his right to in- tercept a snick by Dmitri Mascarenhas. Johnson completed the rout with the wickets of Ames, miscuing a pull, and Renshaw. If Middlesex had been mapping out their tactics they could not have been put into action more efficiently than by Jacques Kallis and Mike Gatting, who extended their second-wicket stand to 173 before the declaration came. For a batsman of his enormous talent, Kallis has performed on- ly adequately this season but in the space of an hour the South African showed, against some moderate bowling, that he can draw on the complete repertoire of strokes. He took three leg-side fours off a wayward first over by Renshaw and needed only 54 balls to progress from his 50 to a second century of the season. Source :: The Electronic Telegraph (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/) Contributed by The Management (help@cricinfo.com)