Essex lose late wickets after Hampshire collapse

Rothesay County Championship, Division One, Ambassador Cruise Line Ground, Chelmsford (day one)

Hampshire 235: Lehmann 89, Brown 73; Mulder 3-46, Cook 3-56

Essex 51-2: Westley 24*

Essex (3 pts) trail Hampshire (0 pts) by 184 runs

Match scorecard

Hampshire pair Jake Lehmann and Ben Brown hit half-centuries before a batting collapse handed Essex the initiative on day one of their County Championship game.

Lehmann, despite only just returning from a trip to Australia for unspecified personal reasons, recorded his fifth successive Championship fifty to reach 425 runs from seven innings this summer.

His 105-run fifth-wicket stand with captain Brown was the only one of real substance as bottom-of-the-table Hampshire subsided to 235 all out.

Lehmann managed to hang around for 164 balls in compiling 89, while Brown's 73 came from 116 balls.

Otherwise, 18-year-old Ben Mayes' 20 was the only other contribution in double figures as Hampshire batters found numerous ways of getting out.

Sam Cook took top-order wickets to finish with 3-56 before Wiaan Mulder wrapped up the tail after tea as the final five wickets fell in just 37 balls.

In 22 overs in the evening, Essex reduced the deficit by 51 for the loss of Paul Walter, caught behind dangling his bat out to Kyle Abbott, and Dean Elgar, tucked up by a short-pitched delivery from James Fuller and dollying up a catch.

Essex's decision to put Hampshire in on a green-top was quickly vindicated as Cook struck twice in five balls as early as the sixth over. Toby Albert was too late on to a ball that would have hit off-stump, departing lbw, and Tom Prest lost his off-stump to one that jagged back.

Nick Gubbins had tried to play a holding role, but after scratching his way to eight from 28 balls his exaggerated forward lunge only succeeded in depositing the delivery from Shane Snater into the hands of a diving gully.

Lehmann and Mayes steadied the ship in a 55-run stand for the fourth wicket, with neither looking discomfited until Mayes fell to the last delivery before lunch, taken low down at second slip for Cook's third wicket.