Hampshire (162 & 293) beat Somerset (197 & 168) by 90 runs

HAMPSHIRE are up to third in the Specsavers County Championship after spinners Liam Dawson and Mason Crane bowled them to victory at Taunton.

The pair picked up nine of the ten Somerset wickets to fall as Hampshire won their second Championship match of the season.

Hampshire bounced back from a first-innings deficit, as they also did to win the season's opener at Yorkshire last month.

Having begun the day needing a further 220 runs to win, with all ten second innings wickets in tact, Somerset slipped from 58-0 to 169 all out in 53.3 overs.

Crane (13.2-2-40-5) recorded his second first-class 'five-fer', his best figures since his home debut against Warwickshire, who visit the Ageas Bowl on Friday, in August 2015. 

Dawson (25-8-66-4) finished with a career-best match haul of 8-129.

He said: "We set clever in-out fields. we protected the boundary but kept our close catchers in and that was massive part of winning that game.

"It didn't spin out as much after day one. We had to bowl a bit quicker than on day one.

"They were slightly ahead of the game, especially at 40-0 this morning.

"But it was always going to be hard for right-handers and the fields we set for left handers were attacking with catchers around the bat, while taking their big shots out of the equation.

"To win as well as we did shows we have a lot of character."

Somerset started the penultimate day as slight favourites but lost six wickets in the first session as Dawson, in particular, bowled with purpose and accuracy.

South Africa left-hander Dean Elgar made 60 in each innings but was the home side's only batsmen to register a half-century second time around.

Marcus Trescothick (34) looked in decent touch until he was adjudged to have nicked a Dawson delivery to wicket keeper Lewis McManus.

Thereafter, wickets tumbled at regular intervals as Hampshire, for the first time in the game, appeared to be in total control.

Abell departed at 70-2, once again off the bowling of Dawson, before Crane found a way through James Hildreth's defence, three runs later.

Steven Davies was trapped leg before by the increasingly effective Dawson and though Elgar, who passed 50 off 85 balls, batted without equal, he and Peter Trego were back in the locker room before the lunch interval.

Trego was run out after Elgar refused a possible single. Then, the South African, who looked in precious little bother was bowled by a Crane delivery that quite literally crept along the floor beneath his bat.

Lewis Gregory offered some resistance after lunch but with Craig Overton (ten) and Jack Leach (seven) respectively, to Crane, Somerset were soon staring down the barrel.

Gregory followed, lbw to Dawson for 25, leaving Crane to not only help himself to the wicket of Jamie Overton in the 55th over, but his fifth scalp of the innings.

A wonderful win for Hampshire, but a disappointing day for Somerset whose batting is something of a headache for coach Matthew Maynard and captain Abell.

For the time being Hampshire have no such worries.

It was a hard-fought win but thoroughly deserved with Dawson and Crane the men of the moment.

Hampshire coach Craig White was delighted with his side's response to last week's innings-and-97-run defeat at Essex.

He said:"It was a great comeback and we are obviously delighted to have won.

"We had a blip at Essex, but it was always going to be about how we responded to that.

"We felt that the first partnership for Somerset was key to them. If we broke that pair up, we could look at chipping away after that. We did exactly that and we bowled really well.

"I felt the bowlers showed brilliant discipline with the ball and a great first session was what we needed."

Hampshire bowling: Abbott 5-1-24-0, Topley 2-1-12-0, Dawson 25-8-66-4, Berg 1-1-0-0, Ervine 8-2-17-0, Crane 13.2-2-40-5