Barker takes six wickets as Hants build lead
Keith Barker produced his best bowling figures back on his old ground - at the age of 37
- Published
Vitality County Championship Division One, Edgbaston (day two)
Hampshire 298: Middleton 74; Hannon-Dalby 3-35, Barnard 3-61, Miles 3-71 & 88-2: Middleton 58
Warwickshire 254: Bethell 69, Mousley 57; Barker 6-74, Abbott 3-64
Hampshire (4 pts) lead Warwickshire (4pts) by 132 runs
Warwickshire old boy Keith Barker rolled back the years at Edgbaston as he bowled Hampshire into a position of control against Hampshire.
Barker took 6-74 - his best figures on his old ground and also against the Bears - as Hants bowled out the hosts for 254 to take a 44-run first innings lead.
Olly Hannon-Dalby struck a quick blow to remove Hants opener Toby Albert, but Fletcha Middleton (58) and the defiant Nick Gubbins (24 not out off 104 balls) then dug in for an 85-run stand that steered them to 88-2 at the close to extended their side's lead to 132.
But it was really a day for two Bears - one from the past and one very much for the future.
While the ever popular Barker - a title winner with Warwickshire in 2012 - again rose to the occasion in Birmingham, he was almost upstaged by Bears man of the moment Jacob Bethell.
The 20-year-old left-hander hit his third fifty for the Bears in successive innings - and each one has been markedly different and progressively slower too, to match the circumstances of each game.
On Thursday evening, he hit seven sixes in an astonishing 15-ball fifty at Edgbaston - the second fastest by an Englishman in the 22 years of English T20 domestic cricket - to beat Northants in the Blast.
He then followed it with a match salvaging 71 not out after 45 balls in a 148-run stand with Sam Hain to beat Worcestershire the following night.
This one took a lot longer - a near three-hour 140-ball 69, largely in partnership with Dan Mousley (57), to steer his side from 83-5 back to a lot nearer to parity.
Bethell had succeeded mostly against the spinners, hitting nine fours to reach only his third first-class fifty.
But, with great irony, it was all ended by Barker as the man with the West Indian father returned to the attack to have the West Indies-born Bethell caught at slip.
Barker had earlier taken three wickets in 25 balls, starting with an LBW decision against nightwatchman Danny Briggs before having Hain caught behind and bowling Ed Barnard.
He then returned to get Mousley and followed Bethell's removal by also getting England's Chris Woakes.
In fact, it might have been even more, but he had Bethell dropped early on by Liam Dawson at second slip.
As it is, the runs from two of the Bears' most promising young hopes Bethell and Mousley kept their team well in contention.
And, although spinner Mousley made a late breakthrough to dislodge Middleton, the game looks intriguingly poised, with Gubbins and Felix Organ (yet to score from 12 balls) due to resume in the morning.
