Brookes & Roderick impress but Pears collapse twice

Centurion Ethan Brookes almost doubled his previous highest score in any of three codes of the professional game

Vitality County Championship Division One, Utilita Bowl (day two)

Hampshire 462: Gubbins 201*, Dawson 109; Virdi 5-133; Taylor 4-86 & 3-0 (6 overs)

Worcestershire 273: Brookes 132, Roderick 94; Dawson 5-88, Abbas 4-27

Hampshire (8 pts) lead Worcestershire (4 pts) by 192 runs with 10 wickets standing

Match scorecard

Ethan Brookes hit his maiden century to officially help Worcestershire stay in Division One for a second season.

But it was again Hampshire's day at Southampton as they bowled out the Pears for 273 to forge an 189-run first-innings lead.

The hosts then opted not to force the follow-on and closed on 3-0, with a lead of 192 - and the prospects of spinner Liam Dawson adding to his fifth five-wicket haul of the season.

Dawson earlier added seven runs to his overnight century before being out for 109, while Nick Gubbins completed a career-best 201 as Hampshire picked up maximum batting points before finally being bowled out for 462.

Surrey spinner Amar Virdi, who had not claimed a single scalp in County Championship cricket in almost three years until joining the Pears on loan, picked up a five-for, backed by four wickets for Tom Taylor.

But Worcestershire's reply then almost totally revolved around a 196-run stand between Brookes and Gareth Roderick, who made 94.

They took the visitors past 250 to get the one batting point they needed to add to their three bowling points to ensure safety - but around them the rest of the Worcestershire batting failed.

Skipper Brett D'Oliveira (19) was the only other to make double figures, as eight of the 11 visiting players managed just 13 runs between them.

The Pears' response began with four straight wickets for Muhammad Abbas as Jake Libby and Kashif Ali went without scoring, before Rob Jones edged behind and Adam Hose fell lbw to leave Worcestershire 30-4.

Dawson then began his haul when D'Oliveira gloved one to Fletcha Middleton before Roderick was joined by Brookes, who was keen to score quickly.

His century came in 128 balls but, once he and Roderick had departed, it sparked a collapse of five wickets for 16 runs.

Roderick was leg before to Felix Organ before Dawson claimed all the last four.

Brookes picked out deep-square-leg, Logan van Beek and Virdi were lbw and Joe Leach was caught at slip before Hampshire openers Middleton and Toby Albert returned to the middle to go through the last six overs of the day unscathed.