ESSEX off-spinner Simon Harmer labelled a lot of the wickets he took to “better error” after Hampshire captain James Vince called the conditions at ECG into question.

Vince’s side fell just 12 runs short of their target in the County Championship clash after an epic chase, stunted only by Harmer taking a personal-best 15 wickets across the match.

South African Harmer, who bowled unchanged on day three, added seven for 161 to go with his eight for 46 in the first innings.

Vince declared after the match that the world-class bowler had exploited the spicy conditions and prevented the game from finding the best team as winner.

“It was the type of wicket we are more accustomed to here at Chelmsford,” Harmer said, after the match. “There was a bit of turn but it was an even competition between bat and ball.

“I can’t say it was too one-sided because if you applied yourself there was plenty of runs on offer, a lot of them were batter error. I would have been extremely disappointed if we had lost that.”

Her continued: “There were a few nervous moments, with the four leg byes with the penultimate ball I started to think we needed to start boxing a bit smart but all’s well that ends well.

“It isn’t idea to go for that many runs. There needed to be a bit of cat and mouse with their batters. I needed to bowl an attacking line and their best option was the slog sweep.

“My mindset was that if you could do that for 299 runs then I’ll take my hat off, shake your hand and say ‘well done’.

“We always knew we would get to a point in the season where the wickets would start to deteriorate and get wickets that would turn. You aren’t going to get seven wickets like that at Chelmsford over a season so when it is your day you need to cash in and make sure you go big.”

Hampshire were only three points behind County Championship leaders Surrey going into the contest.

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