<p> Hampshire 50+A vs Dorset 50+A Tuesday 1st July 2014 home at New Milton CC Souther Counties Championship – East Div </p><p>Hants 50+A slide to 6 wicket defeat against local rivals Dorset in the Southern Counties Championship.</p><p>Hampshire 184 - 8 Dorset 185 - 4 Dorset won by 6 wkts</p><p>On a very decent day for cricket, Dorset outplayed Hants in almost all respects to claim victory in only their 2nd match in the Championship this year. This is Hampshire’s 4th match (half way through) and could not produce the quality that had seen 3 previous victories.</p><p>Hampshire elected to bat first but found no help from either the Dorset bowlers and fielders or the New Milton pitch. Hants crawled to 37 – 0 at 15 overs and 97 – 1 in the 30th over. Efforts to increase the scoring rate to 4 per over, although achieved, resulted in the loss of wickets at regular intervals and the last 15 overs produced almost 90 runs for the loss of 7 wickets. Dave Simpson managed 54 following his century in the last match, Andy Donaghue 23 off 21 balls and some great running by Osborne and ever youthful Wickson got Hants to 184.</p><p>For a while 180 seemed like a defendable total but Dorset clearly have a team set on challenging for the title this year and with Jarvis playing the anchor role, Ryall and Leadbeater set about ensuring Dorset’s progress to victory. Ryall fell to a reaction catch by Les Orr at backward square but the run rate continued at 4 plus. 66 – 1 at 15 overs and 116 – 1 in the 25th over. When Knight bowled Leadbeater (55 off 64 balls) and Jarvis retired hurt, Hants felt they were still in it. However, Young took over the role of anchorman and Porter the agressor took the score to 164 – 2 in the 40th over despite good bowling spells by Andy Donaghue and Darryl Osborne. Porter was caught by Wickson on the mid on boundary but the damage was already done and Dorset ran out winners by 6 wickets.</p><p>The 2nd half of the championship campaign (the return rubbers) start with Herts at Hartley Wintney on 15th July. </p><p>Report by John Knight</p>