Kent boost survival hopes and kill Hampshire's title bid with 77-run win

James Vince (73) and James Fuller (78 not out) offered stiff resistance to Kent's bowlers on day three but couldn't see their side over the line, handing Surrey - themselves cruising to victory over Yorkshire - the title

Southampton (third day of four): Kent 165 & 269, Hampshire 57 & 300 - Kent won by 77 runs

Scorecard

Hampshire saw their dreams of winning the LV= Insurance County Championship title for the first time in 49 years ended by a 77-run defeat to Kent.

Joe Weatherley, James Vince and James Fuller – 56, 73 and 78 not out respectively – had given the south coast county hope of an unlikely chase of 378.

But Hampshire's hopes of replicating the 1961 and 1973's champions were dashed, Nathan Gilchrist taking four for 60, including the winning wicket as the home side only reached 300.

Barely half an hour later, Surrey captured the title for the second time in five seasons with a convincing 10-wicket win over Yorkshire. 

It was Hampshire's third defeat of the season, and Kent's third victory.

For Kent, their relegation worries still loom large, as they go into the last round, where they face Somerset, in danger of being sucked into Division Two despite taking 19 points from the Ageas Bowl. If Warwickshire beat Gloucestershire, they will move into the bottom two, two points adrift. If Warwickshire lose to Gloucestershire, they will be 14 points clear.

^{A dejected James Vince leaves the field [Ryan Pierse/Getty Images]}

Hampshire's hopes of winning the game had been trounced after they had been bowled out for 57 – in doing so giving up a 108-run first-innings deficit – and were further diminished when they had lost four wickets in their pursuit of 378 on the second evening.

Joe Weatherley had been the shining light of that period with his first score above 25 since April. He ended the day on 54, having left and defended well while also finding ways to score.

The morning only brought two runs in a six-over stay before a full Gilchrist delivery thudded into his shin. Gilchrist's following over saw the end of the unbalanced Ben Brown, who clipped a similarly full ball to square leg.

Conor McKerr had been sent on loan from Surrey for this fixture, but hadn't personally helped his parent county with one and a duck with the bat, and no chance to bowl in the first innings. His celebration was perhaps the loudest of the day when he pinned Aneurin Donald in front.

Vince wasn't allowing Kent to ease to victory though, as he demonstrated his trademarked mix of dogged determinism to win the game for his team and beautiful shot-making. His first three scoring shots were variations on a cover drive, including the first ball of the day.

He moved to his sixth half-century of the season off 81 balls with a dabbed three down to third, taking the required runs down to 169 runs at lunch.

But only 27 more runs were knocked off before a turning half-tracker from Jack Leaning lit up Vince's eyes, and his pull shot fell straight into Tawanda Muyeye's grasp on the deep midwicket boundary.

It ended a 90-run stand with Fuller which had almost made Hampshire surprise favourites. Now things looked terminal.

Kyle Abbott was undone by bounce out of the footholds by Leaning to loop to first slip. And despite Fuller racing past a 74-ball fifty and biffing some late runs, Mohammad Abbas had his off stump knocked over by Gilchrist.

The defeat is Hampshire's first at home in the Championship since losing to Somerset last May – a run of 10 victories – and just their second since the start of the 2019 season.