Cricket / Man in the Middle: Just happy to spin in the Hampshire fashion: Shaun Udal

HAMPSHIRE, allegedly unhappy about tinkering to Shaun Udal's action at Lilleshall in the winter, have ordered their star off-spinner to play a defensive 'no comment' bat to any short-of-a-length questions on the subject. 'Let's just say that I'm happy to be back where I was,' he says.

And so he might be. Udal's role in breaking Hampshire's long Championship drought at Trent Bridge last week was a five-for in each innings and a match analysis of 10 for 171. And this on a wicket that used to be coiffured for Clive Rice and Richard Hadlee, and that now has Chris Lewis, Chris Cairns and Andy Pick seaming away on it.

'Well, it certainly turned for that match,' recalls Udal. 'It had been used a couple of weeks earlier, but it was a good cricket wicket, a bit of pace and some turn later on. It's particularly satisfying to get wickets on pitches where you're not supposed to.'

Udal, who last year pipped Malcolm Marshall by one victim to be Hampshire's leading Championship wicket-taker, is part of the crowd-pleasing spin renaissance. 'I think it's just coincidence that people like Robert Croft, Harvey Trump, Peter Such of course, have came through together. They've proved they're worth a chance. But the pitches have been flatter and harder, so skippers are going for spin again.' Hampshire certainly are, with three left-armers fighting for a game - Ian Turner, Rajesh Maru and Darren Flint. 'Ian and I have come up together through the ranks. He's the perfect foil to me - not a huge spinner of the ball, but very accurate.'

Udal takes an attacking, rather than a containing, attitude to bowling. 'Yes, I'd rather get them out than get them bored. It means you might go for a few more runs but in the four-day game you've got a bit of leeway as long as you can take the wickets. And, after all, the most defensive ball of all is the one that takes a wicket.'

Although he is a Farnborough man, all of whose first-class cricket has been for Hampshire, Udal's route to Southampton was not a direct one: he had a year at the Oval. 'As I remember it, Hampshire didn't have an under-16 team, and since I was playing my club cricket just over the border I turned out for Surrey. But I didn't get much opportunity later on, and Peter Sainsbury and Mark Nicholas made it possible for me to move back home.'

Hampshire now need to build on that first victory. A team topheavy in stars, led by the inspirational Nicholas, a team that could afford to make a wicketkeeper of Bobby Parks's quality redundant should surely be challenging harder. 'Yes, but in the Championship I think we lost 11 sessions out of the first 28 to the weather,' says Udal for the defence. 'The first chance of a full game, we won it. Everyone's pulling well, and honestly the dressing- room atmosphere is outstanding. So now we're starting to move again.'

(Photograph omitted)