Match Report - Hampshire v Glos Day 1
22 April 2021
Ian Holland and Tom Alsop each scored centuries as in-form Hampshire closed the opening day of the LV= Insurance County Championship clash with Gloucestershire at the Ageas Bowl on 292/3.
Sam Northeast was dismissed for 24 in the penultimate over of the evening when he was caught down the leg-side by James Bracey off Matt Taylor, .
Both sides went into the game on the back of victories in their opening two matches.
Holland followed up on the unbeaten 146 he chalked up against Middlesex last week with a patient knock of 114 on a good batting pitch that offered little for the bowlers.
The visitors, who also took the impressive scalp of Somerset last week, made an early breakthrough when Dominic Goodman struck with his first delivery of the match.
The twenty-year-old seamer, who is still a student at Exeter University, took three wickets on his debut at Taunton last week and he trapped Joe Weatherley lbw for just eight, leaving the opener as the only player in the Hampshire top-six not to pass at least 100 this season.
With little in the slow-paced surface to offer encouragement to the bowlers, Worrall did manage to find the edge of fellow Australian Holland's bat when he was on 77, only for Braithwaite to put down the most straight-forward of slip catches.
After resuming after tea on 90, Holland chalked up his third career century with a flick through square leg off Josh Shaw.
Alsop's second century of the campaign was punctuated with two glorious straight drives down the ground and a series of venomous cut shots to the boundary as the 25-year-old brought up three figures for the fourth time in his career.
Worrall finally got the breakthrough he deserved when he ended the 228-run stand for the second wicket when he trapped Holland on the back of his crease leaving umpire Ben Debenham with a simple lbw decision.
Gloucestershire captain Chris Dent:
"It was obviously a tough day and we would have liked to have taken some more wickets, they batted really well and the bowlers put everything in today, I can't fault the effort levels at all. They just played well and we didn't take the wickets we would have liked to."
