Kent 495 Hampshire 186-7: Tredwell hampers Hampshire reply

Just 27 days ago Hampshire were contemplating the possibility of a treble. But after finishing second to Durham in the Friends Provident final at Lord's last month things have gone belly-up for Hampshire.

They have allowed their Pro 40 prospects to slip through their fingers and yesterday they were blown out of the County Championship run-in by a more purposeful Kent.

Robert Key's men were thorough. The batsmen continued the accumulation of runs into the afternoon, with James Tredwell and Geraint Jones putting on 83 for the seventh wicket. Hampshire's consolation was Shane Warne claiming his 50th Championship wicket of the season.

Then it was the turn of the Kent bowlers, and they did not disappoint. Former Kent batsman Michael Carberry and his opening partner Michael Brown were making solid progress when they were rudely interrupted.

The off-spinner Tredwell, who has been suffering from a swollen right knee, gave himself the perfect tonic by having Carberry lbw when the left-hander played across the line. Brown, who passed 1,000 runs in the Championship for the first time along the way, helped Hampshire close in on a hundred before driving Tredwell straight to mid-off.

That sparked a mini-collapse. Three more of his team-mates followed and by the time Hampshire had hobbled into three figures they had lost four batsmen for half-a-dozen runs in 29 telling balls.

After Chris Benham holed out at mid-off and Sean Ervine was caught behind, even the target of 346 to avoid the follow-on looked as remote as Alpha Centauri.