Somerset closed on 104-2 in reply to Hampshire's 512

Record-breaking Sean Ervine hit a magnificent double century to give Hampshire a chance of registering their first win of the season.

The Hampshire left-hander’s unbeaten 237 helped the county post 512 to put Somerset under pressure in their first innings at The Rose Bowl.

Somerset closed on 104-2 and will not find it easy to reach the 363 follow-on target as there have already been some signs of uneven bounce even if the wicket is slow.

After Hampshire resumed on 281-7, Ervine soon lost Rangana Herath (15) but added 130 with James Tomlinson, whose 42 was also a career best.

Their partnership was only five runs short of Hampshire’s record for the ninth wicket against Somerset (Bob Stephenson and Nigel Cowley shared 135 at Taunton in 1977).

Left-hander Ervine, 75 overnight, added a further 53 with last man David Griffiths while making Hampshire’s highest individual score since John Crawley’s 311 against Nottinghamshire on the same ground five years ago.

More significantly, Ervine’s 333-ball epic was chanceless and is the highest score by any Hampshire number seven, surpassing Teddy Wynyard’s 225, also against Somerset, at Taunton in 1899.

Afte putting his previous career-best in the shade – the 208 he made for Zimbabwe franchise Southern Rocks in February – Ervine said: “That’s definitely the best first-class knock I’ve ever played.

"I’ve had a lot of decent starts this year so it was pleasing to go on and get a big one and good for the team to post a decent total.

“I was in a bubble, just concentrating on the next ball and it was a good feeling to have.

"We’ve still got to get eight wickets but everyone is feeling good about having such a big total on the board and credit to the tail for hanging in there.”

Hampshire’s total - the county’s highest since their 548 against Somerset at the Rose Bowl nine months ago – should at the very least mean they avoid a seventh successive defeat in all cricket.

But they are thinking more positively than that.

“We’ve just got to bowl dead straight. If we do that it’ll be hard to score and if we set our fields accordingly it will make it tough for them,” added Ervine, who has now scored more Championship runs this season (496) than any first division batsman except Jacques Rudolph.

He hit an incredible 29 fours and has more sixes in the Championship than anyone this year (eight) after making maximum use of the short boundary on the western side of the ground in hitting five.

“There have been times when I’ve felt a lot better but it hasn’t lasted as long as it did today,” added Ervine, who batted for more than six hours in total.

“My plan at the start was not to look too far ahead and to get the bonus point for 300, but I didn’t even think about getting a double hundred when I reached 150.”

Scoreboard pressure did not help Somerset in their reply.

Captain Marcus Trescothick was lbw playing down the wrong line against David Griffiths and Rangana Herath also made the 363 follow-on target look a distant milestone when he dismissed Arul Suppiah in his first over, following a leading edge.