Harmer and Porter help Essex to parity with Hants

Rothesay County Championship, Division One, Ambassador Cruise Line Ground, Chelmsford (day two) Hampshire 235 & 58-2: Gubbins 35*; Cook 2-16 Essex 273: Harmer 80*, Mulder 54; Fuller 5-43 Hampshire (3pts) lead Essex (4pts) by 20 runs with eight wickets remaining Match scorecard Simon Harmer was the architect of a remarkable last-wicket partnership with Jamie Porter that eked out an unlikely first-innings lead for Essex in the County Championship against Hampshire at Chelmsford. The pair reprised their 10th-wicket heroics that salvaged an equally surreal draw against Yorkshire last season by putting on 81 runs in 21 overs to establish a 38-run advantage. Coming together at a perilous 192-9, 43 runs adrift, Harmer and Porter ended up just three runs short of a 96-year-old club-record stand for the last wicket against Hampshire.

All-rounder Harmer, with 80 not out from 118 balls, managed to farm the bowling so expertly that Porter, an archetypal number 11, only faced 38 balls for his dozen runs as they were repeatedly able to take a single from the fifth ball of each over. They were finally parted after the largest stand of the innings when James Fuller returned to knock over Porter's middle stump and claim his ninth career five-wicket haul. Wiaan Mulder had earlier scored his first half-century for Essex while passing 10,000 runs in professional cricket.

In 28 overs in the evening, Hampshire crept back into the black, thanks principally to Nick Gubbins's watchful unbeaten 35, as they closed on 58-2, 20 runs in front. Essex lose late wickets after Hampshire collapse However, in doing so the bottom-of-the-table club lost early wickets to underline their hapless start to the season. Toby Albert was dismissed with the deficit still 25 when he edged Sam Cook behind after scoring just a single from 21 deliveries.

Tom Prest fell soon after to the same bowler-wicketkeeper combination, also for one. On a more positive note, Fuller had stuck twice in his first two overs of the morning to add to his overnight wicket of Dean Elgar. Cook's nightwatchman shift lasted just four more balls before Fuller beat him for pace and sent his off-stump cartwheeling.