HIGH FIVES: Alex Morris.

ALL ATTENTION and excitement may have been half a mile away but Alex Morris showed The Dell did not hold the monopoly on the hot action.

The Hampshire seamer ended with ten wickets and the distinction of setting two career bests in the same day.

The pony-tailed paceman claimed the wickets of Alamgir Sheriyar before lunch to complete his first-ever five-wicket haul in an innings although Hampshire ran into a spot of local trouble in completing what should have been an early wrap.

Worcestershire began the day at 102-7 and facing a tough task of making the 101 needed to force Hampshire to bat again.

But Richard Illingworth led the first of several pockets of resistance that were to punctuate Hampshire's procession to a second Championship victory.

Aided by occasionally wayward and sometimes erratic bowling, and exploiting the wide opens spaces provided by Hampshire's attacking field, Illingworth marshalled a stiff tail-end resistance with an unbeaten 91, gratefully accepting the life offered by Simon Renshaw who grassed a chance off Nixon McLean when he had 38.

The last three wickets coughed up 82 runs and Worcestershire were a teasing 19 runs short of avoiding the follow-on when Renshaw trapped Chris Liptrot playing back, leaving Illingworth high and dry after 158 minutes and 125 balls. His innings included 15 boundaries.

But it took just three overs for Morris to get in amongst the wickets in Worcestershire's second innings, pinning Hafeez as he swung across the line. The pony-tail bobbed again with a carbon copy dismissal of Ruben Spiring.

Vikram Solanki was the key to another rearguard action as he and David Leatherdale added 73 in 23 overs, ending with Leatherdale giving umpire van Holder a long stare as he upheld Dimi Mascarenhas's leg before appeal.

Given Worcestershire's precarious position, Solanki batted with unfetted freedom. Thirteen fours - most of them handsomely driven - decorated his innings as Worcestershire erased Hamp-shire's 168 lead in 46 overs.

Solanki nudged them past that total but then perished to the very next delivery, holing out to an alert catch by Renshaw at point. Not for the first time, Solanki had failed to turn the water of a solid innings into the wine of a century, his 86 having been assembled in 172 minutes and 127 balls with a five added to his boundary collection.

Fortified by tea, Morris ripped through the middle order and bettered his first innings 5-59 with 5-52 in the second.

But Hampshire ran into yet more resistance in the shape of Stephen Rhodes (35 not out) and Liptrot (10 not out) who frustrated them with 31 runs before the close.

Even so, Wocestershire's bat-ting efforts in their two innings so far have the chalk to the cheese of their last visit.

It doesn't seem 20 months ago that Graeme Hick and Tom Moody - both currently on World Cup duty - rewrote the record books with a 438-run partnership.

And that's still ten more than Worcestershire have totalled so far in this match.

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