Hampshire were blown away by a far-superior Lancashire side with the bat and ball on the opening day of their Specsavers County Championship fixture at Emirates Old Trafford.
The visitors were skittled for 109 in their first innings inside 49 overs, before Lancashire reached stumps on 157/1 with a lead of 48 runs. Lancashire's seamers ran riot before lunch to leave Hampshire in all sorts of bother, with the visitors stumbling to 57/5 at the interval.
The home side continued their relentless assault on the Hampshire batsmen, as they were bowled out for just 109 after winning the toss and deciding to bat first. In reply, the Red Rose proved that the Old Trafford wicket was by no means tough to bat on, as Haseeb Hameed (41*) and Luke Procter (48*) added an unbroken stand worth 104 runs for the second wicket after Karl Brown had given the hosts a brilliant start.
There were three wickets apiece for James Anderson (3-43) and Procter (3-14), with both bowlers enjoying success before and after lunch, while Neil Wagner (2-20) struck two wickets in two balls before the break, as Lancashire continued their fierce stance from the Nottinghamshire match.
The biggest disappointment for the visitors came when captain James Vince was ran out by a direct-hit from his Lancashire counterpart, Steven Croft, returning to the pavilion with a nine-ball duck on the day he had hoped to impress the England selectors.
After being frustrated for the majority of their draw against Somerset at Taunton earlier this week, the Red Rose relished the opportunity to return to Old Trafford, with the fast bowlers thriving on the first day to restrict Hampshire's progress.
Anderson continued to find the edge of the bat in the early stages, encouraging an edge from Jimmy Adams (5) to Brown at third slip, as the ball ballooned to the slip cordon, forcing Brown to dive one-handed to his left to take a brilliant catch. With Trevor Bayliss looking on at the progress of Hampshire skipper, Vince, Lancashire continued to dominate proceedings.
Desperate to get off the mark and ultimately make a good impression, Vince scampered to the non-striker's end, assuming that he would be able to make his ground, but Croft fired in his throw and removed the middle stump to send Vince back to the changing rooms for a duck, with Hampshire stumbling to 14/2.
Michael Carberry's resilience was tested by the high quality of bowling on show and, although he largely managed to resit temptation, he was the first of two quick wickets for New Zealander Wagner, after he edged behind to Alex Davies for 16. Wagner, who took 11 wickets on debut against Notts, claimed his 15th wicket of the season for Lancashire when he had Liam Dawson trapped lbw first ball, although there was little he could do to keep out the in-swinging yorker from the Kiwi paceman.
With Hampshire faltering to 34/4, Lancashire were delighted to have lost the toss, as they continued to offer very little to the batting side on a slightly green wicket. Wagner's late in-swing and Anderson's extra bounce had allowed Lancashire to extract maximum value from the pitch, with Procter chipping in with the first of three wickets on the stroke of lunch to compound Hampshire's misery.
Will Smith's determination was exhausted by the more threatening Lancashire seamers, but it was Procter who claimed his wicket, with Smith getting a fine edge to Davies down the leg side to remove Smith for 18 moments before lunch. Smith and Adam Wheater's partnership for the fifth wicket worth 23 runs was the highest stand in Hampshire's abysmal innings, with Wheater going on to make 32 to top Hampshire's efforts with the bat.
It was still possible for Hampshire to salvage a respectable total from the wreckage of their top-order collapse, but their despair continued after lunch when Ryan McLaren (4) was next to experience the exceptional fielding of Croft, who took a superb diving catch at mid-off to supply Anderson with his second scalp.
Gareth Andrew (3) wouldn't have expected to be batting so soon on his debut for Hampshire, but he handed Kyle Jarvis (1-27) his first and only breakthrough of the innings when he gloved a rising delivery behind to Davies, as 63/5 became 66/6. Wheater appeared to be Hampshire's only hope for avoiding the ignominy of being bowled out inside two sessions, but he started to run out of able and sensible batting partners.
A brief and entertaining innings from West Indies fast bowler Tino Best typified Wheater's plight, with only Mason Crane adding support to his cause. Best (11) was capable of blocking, but the temptation to play one rash shot every now and again let him and his side down, as he eventually edged Anderson to Liam Livingstone at first slip.
Procter returned with venom after lunch removing Crane (10) and Tomlinson (0) in successive overs, with both batsmen playing on to Procter's medium pace, as he finished as the pick of the bowlers with figures of 3-14. Hampshire were put out of their misery inside 49 overs, but their frustration was far from over, as Lancashire went on to make Hampshire's meagre total look even more pathetic.
Brown made a rapid start at the crease, hitting 40 from 33 balls at the top of the order to add to the misery of the visiting fans. Brown accelerated to 35 in just 28 deliveries, giving him the highest score of the match after less than half an hour at the crease, as Lancashire reached 50 at a run-a-ball. Had Brown been able to occupy the crease much longer, Hampshire would have had even more cause for despair but luckily for the visitors, Andrew made an immediate breakthrough.
Having made the switch to Hampshire from Worcestershire, Andrew struck with his first ball in Championship cricket for more than a year, as he had Brown trapped lbw for 40, but the opening batsman had given Lancashire a superb start at 53/1 after hitting eight boundaries. Progress was much slower between Hameed and Procter, but their partnership continued to prove that the wicket was conducive to batting and that Hampshire had in fact made a mess of their first innings.
Progressing to 66/1 at tea, the pair continued to edge ever-closer to Hampshire first-innings total of 109, reaching a hundred-partnership in the closing stages of the first day to seal a perfect day for the Red Rose.
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