TWO PORTIONS of Special K gave Hampshire a substantial start against Warwickshire on the second day of their PPP Healthcare Championship match yesterday, even if it was a late one.

But half centuries for Will Kendall and Derek Kenway only served to underline what a mixed breakfast Hampshire's batting has been this season.

Only Leicestershire have accumulated more batting bonus points than Hampshire's 31, but Kendall is still the only batsman to assemble a championship ton for Hampshire this season.

His second 50-plus score in successive championship matches means that August is already proving hotter than July for Kendall, who started the season in blistering form.

Kenway has been consistent all season, even if that maiden championship century has been an artful dodger to him.

The pair came together after Jason Laney had fallen to a stunning catch by Dominic Ostler, Hampshire having been put in on a grassy meadow as things eventually got under way at 2.30pm.

Already, 149 overs have been lost and the K brothers were mindful of the need to get a crack-on if Hampshire are to prise some sort of positive result from the match.

They certainly need the points a win would provide in the mid-table mixer, and they also need to make hay against a desperately weakened Warwickshire attack with just three fit seamers.

Kendall timed the ball neatly off leg stump and he won the race to the 50 mark by one ball, his half century coming off 124 deliveries as opposed to Kenway's 125, Kendall's five boundaries being one more than Kenway's.

They both offered chances, Kenway surviving something of a collector's item on 26 when the normally safe Trevor Penney grassed one in the gully.

Kendall offered a tough chance to Nick Knight at second slip off Alan Richardson when he had made 39 as the pair put their side in a strong position with an unbroken 103-run partnership in 43 overs.

Converted for the new archive on 25 January 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.