County Championship: Warwickshire start well with bat against Hampshire
Vitality County Championship Division One, Utilita Bowl, Southampton (day one) |
Warwickshire 340-4: Davies 149, Rhodes 81, Yates 69 |
Hampshire: Yet to bat |
Hampshire 1 pt, Warwickshire 2 pts |
Alex Davies continued his prolific start to the County Championship season with an immense century as Warwickshire dominated Hampshire.
New Bears skipper Davies has already totted up 441 runs this season with scores of 36, 256 and on this occasion 149 to lead from the front.
He was partnered with equally high-scoring Rob Yates and Will Rhodes - who are up to 286 and 323 runs this campaign after 69 and 81 at Utilita Bowl.
Davies' decision to bat after winning the toss was a simple one and he put on a clinic of field manipulation and boundary hitting as Warwickshire ended day one on 340-4.
He and opening partner Yates tore into the over-pitching Kyle Abbott early on - the South African went for 29 in his opening four overs as the opening stand whizzed past 50 inside 14 overs.
The duo were coming off the back of an epic 343-run stand against Durham at Edgbaston last week.
Yates had reached his fifty in 80 balls, but fell in the second over of the resumption after Abbott changed tact.
The former Test quick had exclusively bowled around the wicket before the interval but afterwards came over, and managed to get the left-hander to nick behind with the ball angling across him.
The breakthrough did not spark a collapse as a 116-run partnership made way for a 174-run one.
Davies eased through his half-century in 82 deliveries, and despite being bowled by James Fuller off a no-ball, breezed to a ninth first-class ton in 166 balls.
Other than a swept maximum off Liam Dawson, Rhodes was workmanlike and unmemorable in his batting - but his style simply saw the runs column continue to increase steadily. His half-century took 97 balls.
Davies fell for 149 when edged to James Vince at first slip while attempting to work Dawson to the legside.
A new ball soon after saw Mohammad Abbas pin Rhodes on the shin for 81 before Ed Barnard was lbw to Dawson to give Hampshire a brighter end to a atting-dominant day.
Report supplied by ECB Reporters' Network.
