Rain holds up Lancs victory bid

Hampshire's slim chances of getting anything out of their Specsavers County Championship Division One clash with Lancashire took an upturn as they battled on during a truncated day three with eight wickets still intact.
Carberry - caught behindCarberry - caught behind
Carberry - caught behind

A gloomy Emirates Old Trafford greeted the players this morning and the Hampshire pair of Michael Carberry and James Vince must have known they were in for a tough examination from Jimmy Anderson as they resumed on 22-1, still trailing the hosts by 325 runs.

Predictably it wasn’t long before England’s record Test wicket taker struck and just 11 balls had been delivered when Anderson got his fifth ball to angle across Carberry who edged behind to the diving Alex Davies for 16.

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With just one run added to the overnight score and Anderson steaming in, the prospects of Hampshire getting through to lunch without further losses seemed as bleak as the weather so credit to Vince and Will Smith who rebuilt the innings with determination and grit.

Smith took 43 balls to get off the mark but had reached 13 not out by the interval while at the other end Vince progressed to an unbeaten 39 off 147 balls which included a top edged six off Neil Wagner whose aggressive short pitched bowling contributed to an engrossing session of cricket.

At 76 for two Hampshire still trail by 271 runs after rain wiped out Wednesday afternoon’s play.