Quiet Day For Flintoff

Flintoff - a wicket and a couple of catches.

Andrew Flintoff had little chance to stake a claim for a recall to England's Test side after a quiet day at the Rose Bowl playing for Lancashire against Hampshire.

Flintoff spent the day in the field, taking one wicket from 14 gentle overs and took two slip catches.

Hampshire chose to bat first and made a moderate 248 for nine from 90 overs before bad light and then heavy rain brought a premature close.

Flintoff continued his rehabilitation from injury by coming on at first change and taking a wicket in his third over.

Flintoff's victim was John Crawley, a former Lancashire team-mate, who edged the all-rounder to slip where captain Stuart Law held the catch.

Flintoff's first spell of six overs cost him 11 runs as Hampshire went into lunch at 83 for three.

Opening batsman Michael Carberry was out to the third ball of the day, giving Glen Chapple a return catch.

Crawley was second to go at 48 and Lancashire-born Michael Brown was the third to be removed just before lunch after hitting five fours in a breezy 49 before being lbw to Sajid Mahmood.

Hampshire failed to prosper after the break on a low and slow wicket and at 85 they lost Sean Ervine to a catch at fourth slip by Paul Horton to give Chapple his second wicket.

It might have got worse for Hampshire if Nic Pothas had been run out without scoring when a direct throw from Lou Vincent hit the stumps but the Hampshire wicketkeeper was adjudged to have made his ground.

Pothas went on to become Hampshire's top scorer with 62 as wickets tumbled at the other end.

Michael Lumb edged Gary Keedy to Law at slip after making 29 and Keedy struck again when Dimitri Mascarenhas gave him a hard return catch.

Flintoff returned for another spell, this time of seven overs for 18 runs but Hampshire went into tea at 164-6.

Greg Lamb was caught down the leg side by wicketkeeper by Luke Sutton off Mahmood but it was the wicket of Pothas which Lancashire most craved. Pothas twice struck Keedy for sixes, straight end over long on, on his way to his highest score of the season.

Pothas' 62 also included six fours and came off 126 balls before, in the first over of the new ball, he swung wildly at Chapple and Flintoff held a waist-high slip catch.

Hampshire introduced South African Kolpak signing Rory Kleinveldt for his debut and the newcomer made a useful 16 as Hampshire edged towards a batting bonus point.

But at 243 Flintoff was involved again when a delivery from Dominic Cork was edged to first slip where the big man clutched another straight forward chance.

There was time for one more over from Flintoff before the rains came with Hampshire still requiring two more runs for their batting point on a day when honours were even.