Yorkshire ensure no repeat as Rashid leads way

They knocked off 404 against Yorkshire in 2006 – the same total which Bradman’s Invincibles managed in the 1948 Ashes Test, Bradman contributing an unbeaten 173.

Lightning was never likely to strike twice for Hampshire once they had been set 449 to win this game, and so it proved.

Reeling on 37-4 going into day four, they were dismissed for 143 as Yorkshire wrapped up victory at 2.40pm.

The champions’ second win – to go with two draws – lifted them to third in the table, nine points behind leaders Middlesex.

CricketTalk: Listen to Chris Waters on Jason Gillespie, England and Kevin Pietersen and Yorkshire’s T20 chances in our latest podcast

It was the type of convincing performance they served up last summer, when they won eight of 16 matches – five by an innings.

Boosted by the return of their England players (or three of them, at any rate, in the form of Adam Lyth, Jonny Bairstow and Adil Rashid, with Liam Plunkett dropped for missing a team photocall and training session prior to the match), Yorkshire were predictably too strong for their newly-promoted rivals.

Sterner tests will come, but this was perhaps the first genuinely commanding display that Yorkshire have delivered this season.

The only damage inflicted on Yorkshire yesterday, in fact, came during the pre-play warm-ups.

Tim Bresnan took a boot in the face from Jonny Moxon, the 22-year-old son of director of cricket Martyn, while the cricketers were playing football in front of the pavilion.

Bresnan sustained a cut to the side of his head and left the field for treatment with Kunwar Bansil, the club physiotherapist.

Although Bresnan recovered to play a full part in proceedings (the cricket not the football), play was halted briefly when the wound re-opened.

Bresnan is a tough character, and after Adil Rashid had bowled nightwatchman James Tomlinson, who stopped for several seconds on his way back to the pavilion to rehearse painstakingly the forward defensive shot he should have played, Bresnan captured the important wicket of Sean Ervine.

The batsman pushed forward to a delivery that feathered the outside edge and ended in the safe gloves of wicketkeeper Jonny Bairstow. It left Hampshire 67-6 after 50 minutes’ play and put paid to any fanciful hopes of survival. Not that Hampshire simply rolled over and died as some thought they might.