Essex were left licking their wounds following a second successive Championship defeat at Chelmsford when feeble batting best explains a 114-run mauling by Hampshire.

It means Essex are halfway through their season's programme and are still searching for their first triumph. And on the evidence of this latest display it is difficult to see where it is coming from.

In truth they were beaten more decisively than the final margin suggests after they had been left a target of 350.

Briefly they hinted at something special as openers Will Jefferson and Alastair Cook shared in a partnership of 48.

But then they and Andy Flower departed in the space of 13 deliveries, the Zimbabwean for a fourth ball duck to go with a single in the first innings.

From then onwards it was only a matter of when, and not if, Hampshire celebrated their fourth win of the season.

James Foster battled gamely to make 39 in 20 overs while Graham Napier opened his shoulders to plunder an unbeaten 51 from 63 deliveries which included three sixes and half-a-dozen fours. It was exciting to watch but served only to delay an inevitable defeat.

There was nothing else to enthuse about as far as the batting was concerned.

Even allowing for a pitch with uneven bounce and which offered turn, although not extravagant, totals of 158 and 235 were poor efforts -- a fact readily acknowledged by batsman Aftab Habib.

"We were always struggling to stay in the game after we let ourselves down badly with the bat in the first innings when we should have put 250 on the board at the very least" he said.

Published Monday June 14, 2004

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