Gough still has a trick or three! (From The Wiltshire Gazette and Herald)

Gough still has a trick or three!

SWINDON'S Jon Lewis boosted his England chances by taking three wickets against his teammates in the NatWest warm-up match against Hampshire.

Lewis, along with Vikram Solanki, turned out for Hampshire to give all of England's 14-man squad a run out.

In Lewis' 10 overs he dismissed Paul Collingwood, Marcus Trescothick and Andrew Strauss.

But it was Darren Gough who stole the show during the England victory, taking his second hat-trick in an England shirt.

Veteran fast bowler Gough, 34, dismissed Craig McMillan, John Crawley and Chris Benham in consecutive deliveries as the Hampshire XI were reduced to an embarrassing 20-7 on the bowler-friendly Rose Bowl surface.

New ball partner Simon Jones also claimed three wickets in the 153-run victory which was set up by authoritative half-centuries from Kevin Pietersen and Andrew Strauss.

Their 133-run stand for England's fifth wicket was by far the biggest of the day as England prepared for Monday's Twenty20 with Australia on the same ground by easing to victory before 4.30pm and following up with another last-ball win in a 12-over-a-side affair.

"Simon Jones was bowling really well at the other end when I took my three," said Gough, who famously took an Ashes hat-trick in the Sydney test of 1998/99. It was a good one to get McMillan out to start off with.

"I have had a fielder positioned at square leg against Crawley for the past 10 years and he always hits it either side of the man in the air so it was good that he picked out Kevin Pietersen.

"The next ball was always going to be a yorker and the young lad fell for the sucker punch."

Earlier in the day England's top order failed to spark in testing conditions and were reduced to 72-4 in the process before finally posting 238.

Gough added: "It was good preparation, we did well to get that kind of score as it was always hard against a new ball today.

"I don't have to say anything more about Kevin really because he has done it all before. It's just a pleasure to watch him play when he is in that kind of touch.

"Andrew Strauss did really well to graft out a score as well, he didn't do as well in the winter but that's exactly what we want him to do in that role."

Pietersen followed up his 77 with an amazing 15-ball assault which yielded 46 in England's second victory which was sealed when Gough sliced the last ball to third man for the two runs required.

NatWest Series Warm Up Match The Rose Bowl England 238 (A J Strauss 85, K P Pietersen 77) v Hampshire 85 England beat Hampshire by 153 runs