Mostly, Mason Crane

Yorkshire 243 

v Hampshire 163 

Yorkshire 312 for 6 declared 

Hampshire 177 for 9 

Match Drawn 

County Championship Division 1 

Thursday 2 September 2021 

Played at Southampton 

I'm not quite sure what to make of this place

Coop Micro Bar, 5 Lower Northam Rd, Hedge End, Southampton SO30 4FN

(pronounced coop as in loop, I asked them)

Under current Carrier Bag Firm regulations, that is perfectly doable from the Ageas Bowl. It's under the 30mins walking requirement. In a reasonably busy locale, with the chance of an Uber. It's a single, shop front bar. A Greggs one side & a kebab shop the other (giggling here). Ten pukka kegs. And Corona on draft as the normal lager.

I tried six of the ten. Not a bad one amongst. So, I hear you ask, why in two minds Phil?

Well. Because I didn't have a superb one either. Five of the Ten were from the same single brewery. And you'd struggle to find any real difference between five of the Pales & NE IPAs I tried. And, the sixth, a Czech style pilsner was just ordinary. The whole shebang just lacking variety basically.

And. The service was fine. Nice & friendly & helpful. But. The pace of the place was run by those fucking computerised tills & tablets. Every beer ordered ran the same pattern. I knew what I wanted. Picked off the screens in the bar. Ordered by Number & Name. The bar staff knew what I wanted. The taps were right there on the back wall. But, every order was met with - take a seat, it'll be a minute or two, I'll bring it over. Because, they then had to pfaff around on the technology - swipe left, swipe right, search engine, tap, tap, tap to find the fucking thing in cyberspace and put it through the till. Wait for a little ticket to come out of a machine. So that they could read the fucking order I'd placed 2 minutes ago. And then make a little queue of tickets on the bar. Aaarrrggghhh.

Tap It Brewing Co, Judas, Pilsner on Keg at 4.5%

Tap It Brewing Co, Dialling In, New England Pale on Keg at 4.8%

Little Monster Brewing Co, Better In Blue, IPA on Keg at 5.2%

Tap It Brewing Co, Interstella, New England IPA on Keg at 5.2%

Tap It Brewing Co, Nipper, New England IPA on Keg at 5.6%

Little Monster Brewing Co, Manaaki, New England IPA on Keg at 6.5%

(Recovering) on balance that place is a PLUS. In what is basically a beer desert anywhere near the ground, we now have a target.

And. Seamless. Yorkshire also eventually set Hampshire a target late on Day 3. Chase 393 lads. We all do our own calculations don't we. Basically, no one is going to declare at Tea anymore. Because - if Ballance can bat, stay in, and score on this, so can Vince. A 121 stand between Hill & Tom Kohler-Cadmore. Tom was third out (for 89) at 206 (off 73.6). He'd done the hard graft, but once the hammer came down, he got out. The set up seemed to take an age. Hants were two bowlers short. Dawson was chucking it into the rough outside leg stump. Nine boundary fielders. I felt Yorkshire should have taken it on there. Do the opposite of what your opponent expects. And, once there are enough runs on, put the gun on to have a shot before close. But it drifted a bit if I'm honest. Just 68 in 31 overs in the morning. And only 27 in the first 19 overs of the middle session. Then 183 runs off 25 overs either side of Tea. Spread it out a bit is what I'm saying……

Ballance did the damage with an 85 ball Century. Seven leg side sixes. 

Alsop & Holland went before close. So what do I know?

Day Four went all the way. Because of the format of the Championship this year, it sort of felt like Yorkshire had to win to have a chance at the Title. An all on the line day. Which we couldn't get over the line. I can't really say I can point to anything Yorkshire did wrong. The declaration left 'em with a good whack with the New Ball from Tea. The light went & Bess & Lyth had to tandem at the end. But, mostly, Mason Crane. Night Watchman late on Day Three. Batted for 250 minutes. Best part of 200 balls. For a superb 28 runs. Vince matched him. 151 balls for 42. 

The following two nine on the boundary vs ten round the bat pics tell the story.

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