Kyle Abbott bowled his way into the record books with the best figures by a Hampshire bowler for 23 years.

Hampshire’s South African fast bowler finished with 9-40, the best for the county since Cardigan Connor’s 9-38 in 1996 and the first nine-wicket haul at The Ageas Bowl, after three scintillating spells of seam bowling rolled Somerset over for 142.

James Vince then struck his first red-ball century of the season to end Somerset’s hopes of winning the title this week.

Abbott had started with two wickets on a gloomy Monday evening before taking five in the morning and wrapped up the tail after lunch - with Fidel Edwards preventing him from clinching a 10-fer.

“I didn’t expect that when I woke up this morning!” he said. “It was nice to get a couple early and then got on a little bit of a roll and it’s got us into a nice position.

“As soon as I came back I heard all the stats. It is all nice to have. There was an opportunity to put them under pressure and we did – they have a Championship on the line.”

That gave Hampshire a first-innings lead of 54, before they collapsed to 10-3 and 45-6, but Vince played a masterful innings.

Somerset, who can at best end the penultimate round of fixtures 23 points ahead of Essex, ended the day trailing by 230 runs.

Abbott had ended the first day with figures of two for one, having dismissed Murali Vijay and Steve Davies, but while the pitch remained green, dry and very quick, the overheads had altered from grey clouds to unblemished blue.

That would usually suggest batsman-friendly conditions, but with his third ball of the morning Abbott jagged one back to dump Tom Abell’s off stump.

Edwards, who provided plenty of testing deliveries of his own, struck Tom Banton on the hand before luring him into edging behind with another short-pitched ball the next delivery.

From then on it was vintage Abbott; James Hildreth pushed behind and George Bartlett and Lewis Gregory were was lbw to in-seamers.

Craig Overton had his stumps demolished, Dom Bess, who had added 76 with Roelof Van Der Merwe, scooped to square leg and Josh Davey swiped outside his off stump.

Abbott now has 60 Championship wickets this season, the most by a seamer in the top flight.

Despite being bowled out for 142, Somerset hit back with the new ball in style. Davey had Ian Holland caught at second slip by Vijay and Tom Alsop lifting to mid-wicket.

Gregory had Felix Organ prodding behind to a ball which held its line before Sam Northeast and Liam Dawson were lbw to Overton.

At 45 for six, and with Aneurin Donald back in the dressing after he was bowled while withdrawing his bat, Hampshire appeared well short of setting Somerset a total.

But Vince dug in. After taking 23 balls to get off the mark, he rode through the gears and made batting look easy.

Lewis McManus and Keith Barker came and went, lbw to Van Der Merwe and Abell respectively, but Vince accelerated - reaching fifty in 78 balls with a pulled four.

Vince was forced to manipulate the strike amongst some defensive Somerset fields but cruised to a 136-ball hundred, which comprised of 14 boundaries.

He ended the day unbeaten on 102, having added 73 for the ninth wicket with Abbott, who added: “It looked like we were looking down the barrel but the captain came out and played an incredible knock.

“It was nice to bat with him at the end. We’re almost close to a winning total now.”

Somerset head coach Jason Kerr said: “It was an outstanding spell from Abbott. On this surface the new ball has proven to be key and the way he displayed his skills were phenomenal. He asked questions every ball.”

SCORECARD

Somerset first innings (30-2 overnight)

M Vijay lbw b Abbott 0

SM Davies † b Abbott 10

TB Abell (c) b Abbott 20

JC Hildreth c †McManus b Abbott 2

T Banton c †McManus b Edwards 6

GA Bartlett lbw b Abbott 9

L Gregory lbw b Abbott 0

DM Bess c Donald b Abbott 37

C Overton b Abbott 4

RE van der Merwe not out 29

JH Davey c †McManus b Abbott 10

Extras 15 (b 4, lb 3, nb 8)

TOTAL 142 all out (48.4 overs)

Fall of wickets: 1-12 (Murali Vijay, 2.4 ov), 2-23 (Steven Davies, 8.2 ov), 3-38 (Tom Abell, 12.3 ov), 4-45 (Tom Banton, 13.5 ov), 5-45 (James Hildreth, 14.1 ov), 6-58 (George Bartlett, 20.4 ov), 7-59 (Lewis Gregory, 22.1 ov), 8-65 (Craig Overton, 24.4 ov), 9-132 (Dominic Bess, 46.2 ov), 10-142 (Josh Davey, 48.4 ov)

BOWLING: KJ Abbott 18.4-9-40-9, KHD Barker 12-0-44-0, FH Edwards 13-2-42-1, IG Holland 4-0-8-0, LA Dawson 1-0-1-0.

Hampshire second innings

(First innings: 196)

FS Organ c †Davies b Gregory 3

IG Holland c Vijay b Davey 7

TP Alsop c van der Merwe b Davey 0

SA Northeast lbw b Overton 22

JM Vince (c) not out 102

LA Dawson lbw b Gregory 2

AHT Donald b Overton 1

LD McManus lbw b van der Merwe 10

KHD Barker lbw b Abell 9

KJ Abbott not out 17

Extras 3 (lb 3)

TOTAL 176/8 (50 overs)

Yet to bat: FH Edwards

Fall of wickets: 1-10 (Ian Holland, 3.2 ov), 2-10 (Tom Alsop, 7.4 ov), 3-10 (Felix Organ, 8.1 ov), 4-34 (Sam Northeast, 15.5 ov), 5-40 (Liam Dawson, 21.4 ov), 6-45 (Aneurin Donald, 22.5 ov), 7-90 (Lewis McManus, 31.3 ov), 8-103 (Keith Barker, 32.5 ov).

BOWLING: L Gregory 14-8-30-2, JH Davey 9-4-15-2, C Overton 15-2-61-2, RE van der Merwe 9-0-45-1, TB Abell 3-0-22-1.

MOST WICKETS IN AN INNINGS FOR HAMPSHIRE

9-25 RMH Cottam v Lancashire, Old Trafford, 1965

9-26 AEG Baring v Essex, Colchester, 1931

9-30 D Shackleton v Warwickshire, Portsmouth,1960

9-33 AS Kennedy v Lancashire, Liverpool, 1920

9-38 CA Connor v Gloucestershire, Southampton, 1996

9-40 KJ Abbott v Somerset, The Ageas Bowl, 2019

9-44 DW White v Leicestershire, Portsmouth 1966

9-46 AS Kennedy v Derbyshire, Portsmouth 1929

9-57 GS Boyes v Somerset, Yeovil, 1938

9-59 D Shackleton v Gloucestershire, Bristol, 1958

9-77 D Shackleton v Glamorgan, Newport, 1977

9-81 D Shackleton v Gloucestershire, Bristol 1959

9-93 AD Mullally v Derbyshire, Derby 2000

9-131 JA Newman v Essex, Dean Park, Bournemouth, 1921