Hampshire gave "pretty much the perfect performance" against Essex, says James Vince

Hampshire romped to an innings-and-87-run win in their opening County Championship fixture of 2019, as Fidel Edwards returned match figures of 8-100

James Vince described Hampshire's display in their innings victory over Essex as "pretty much the perfect performance".

Hampshire romped to an innings-and-87-run win in their opening County Championship fixture of 2019, as Fidel Edwards returned match figures of 8-100.

The win came with maximum bonus points and captain Vince was gushing with praise after the close of play.

"It was pretty much the perfect performance. To score over 500 and bowl them out twice – everything seemed to go to plan," he said.

SCORECARD

"No game is easy to captain and a big partnership there today and you start to wonder where the next wicket will come [Ravi Bopara and Simon Harmer frustrated Hampshire during the opening sesson on Monday]. But we knew the new ball was going to be different so we had to hang in there and hope the bowlers had enough in the tank to hit the stumps with the new ball and they did it well.

"We have done a lot of overs in the field and the bowlers have had a big workload so we need to try and get ourselves right and have a little rest before Thursday. The way our bowlers ran in they never gave up and always put their hands up.

"Going forward we need to keep on doing the little things right and hopefully the big picture will look after itself.

"Fidel and Kyle [Abbott] were outstanding. It is never easy to ask the other team to follow-on and make the bowlers take another 10 wickets. We executed our plans perfectly."

Subscribe to The Cricketer for exclusive content every day: The inside track on England's Test tour with George Dobell in Pakistan, award-winning analysis, breaking news and interviews and the only place for in-depth county coverage all year round. Plus: An ad-free app experience at your fingertips. Subscribe to thecricketer.com today for just £1.