Specsavers County Championship Division 1
Day 4
Hampshire 211-9d & 96-5d draw with Somerset 147 all out & 88-88

SOMERSET were forced to mount a backs-to-the-wall effort to rescue a draw away to Hampshire, following yet another underwhelming batting display as their players struggled with the conditions in the day/night match.

A fluent 47 from Steve Davies briefly raised hopes of a win, having been set a target of 161, but wickets once again tumbled, leaving Craig Overton and Josh Davey to see out the final over and secure the draw with two wickets in hand.

Earlier in the day, Hampshire had quickly wrapped up Somerset's first innings, the visitors having collapsed from 102-1 to 135-8 on Wednesday.

Davey only survived to the eighth ball after the resumption, caught by Jimmy Adams off Gareth Berg for five, and then Jack Leach (2) was snared behind by Lewis McManus, again off Berg - Tim Groenewald (10no) the last man standing when the innings ended at 147.

After a steady start to their second innings, Hampshire went looking for quick runs to try and force a result, and wickets started to fall.

Adams (9) was run out by Craig Overton at 24-1 following a mix-up, and Liam Dawson (bowled by Groenewald) followed for 20 at 31-2.

The hosts made it to the interval at 50-2, and Rilee Rossouw progressed to 22 before he was caught at slip by James Hildreth off Lewis Gregory at 66-3.

James Vince (20) also fell to Lewis Gregory, this time caught behind by Davies, and when George Bailey (8) was run out by Eddie Byrom after more confusion in the middle Hampshire were 79-5.

They made it to 96-5 (Sean Ervine 11no, Ian Holland 6no), a lead of 160 runs, when rain stopped play.

With 90 minutes lost to the elements, the home side declared, setting Somerset a target of 161 to win, off a minimum of 31 overs.

The chase got off to a dreadful start though, as two fine deliveries from Berg saw off Marcus Trescothick (4) and Adam Hose (0), the visitors reduced to 4-2 in testing conditions with the pink ball.

Wicketkeeper Davies, moved up to opener, was looking to make progress with Hildreth, but the latter was bowled by Kyle Abbott for 10 at 27-3.

Davies was finding the boundary at will, and 20-year-old Byrom started well too - only to be bowled by Ian Holland for 15, having scored a fine four the ball before, at 68-4 (92 runs behind).

Tom Abell went for a fourth-ball duck (c Rossouw b Dawson), making that a pair in the match and adding to the pressure on the desperately out-of-form captain, and a body blow followed as Davies departed for 47 (c Bailey b Holland) to leave Somerset 79-6.

Groenewald and Gregory were tasked with digging in for the away side, and did just that - scoring three apiece off 29 and 31 balls, respectively, before Berg returned to trap Gregory lbw.

Somerset had gone six overs without scoring a single run before Craig Overton took two off Berg, and Groenewald was still on three when he was caught behind off Abbott at 84-8.

Overton (2no) and Davey (4no) had one final over to survive, successfully navigated by Overton to finish on 88-8 - 73 runs adrift of victory but enough to avoid defeat.

The draw gave Somerset eight points, which sees them two points ahead of Division 1 basement side Warwickshire, and 29 points behind third-from-bottom Middlesex, who were denied a draw of their own by Simon Harmer's 9-95 for league leaders Essex.